Attorney says
drug Prozac caused
murder-suicide
The anti-depressant
By Susan Kreifels
caused the man to kill his
wife, then himself, says
a Houston attorney
Star-BulletinWilliam Forsyth Sr. fit the typical description of an older person who commits murder, then suicide -- a man who kills his wife in their bedroom because the relationship is falling apart and he's suffering from major depression, says a drug company lawyer.
But Houston attorney Andy Vickery, representing the couple's two adult children, said it was the anti-depressant Prozac that made Forsyth fatally stab his wife of 37 years on the night of March 4, 1993, on Maui. Forsyth then leaned against a knife and killed himself.
"This is a case about drug-induced violence," said Vickery, representing Susan and William Forsyth Jr., during opening statements in a federal court trial yesterday. "Bill (Sr.) was taking Prozac for 10 days and did something totally out of character."
Attorney Andrew See, representing Prozac-maker Eli Lilly & Co., blamed Forsyth's depression for the violence. "This case is about a good drug and and a very bad, powerful disease," See said.
The trial is being held before U.S. District Judge Alan Kay.
Vickery said 3 to 5 percent of the tens of millions of people who take Prozac react to the anti-depressant with violent and suicidal behavior. He accused Eli Lilly of knowing this information but failing to tell doctors who prescribe it, and in fact misleading them about the risks.
A 1990 article in a medical journal raised a red flag when two doctors wrote that six patients who had never been suicidal started thinking about violent ways to kill themselves after taking Prozac, Vickery said.
In Kentucky in 1994, Eli Lilly won the only other Prozac case tried in court, Vickery said, adding that evidence had been withheld from the jury and a settlement paid. That case involved a printing plant employee who killed eight co-workers in a 1989 shooting rampage. Other suits have been settled out of court, he said.
The day Forsyth Sr. checked out of the mental health ward at Castle Medical Center on Oahu, he stabbed his wife, June, 15 times, then killed himself in the kitchen. His son, a Lahaina charter boat captain, found the couple's bodies the next day.
Vickery said Forsyth Sr. sold his successful car rental business in Los Angeles and retired in 1986. In 1990, the couple moved to Maui.
Forsyth Sr. fell into depression and was prescribed anti-depressants, including Prozac, and asked to be hospitalized, the attorney said. After 10 days at Castle he checked out and appeared to be fine. That night he killed his wife and himself.
Vickery said three doctors in the months leading up to the murder-suicide did not detect any suicidal thoughts. He suggested those thoughts only came after Forsyth Sr. started taking Prozac.
