Murder Caused by Antipsychotic Drug Withdrawal Symptoms, Psychiatrist Tells Court

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A psychiatrist has testified to an Irish court that Ian Harman cannot be held criminally responsible because he was suffering withdrawal from an antipsychotic medication when he murdered a fellow psychiatric inmate. According to the Irish Independent, shortly after Harman was admitted to hospital, the olanzapine that he’d been taking was suddenly stopped. “Nursing notes stated that… he had racing thoughts and was given hot milk and encouraged to go to bed. He broke a flowerpot and tried to kill himself. He was pacing up and down and was restless…” reports the Independent. Harman asked for but was denied the medication. Over the next few days leading up to committing the murder, Harmen’s drug withdrawal symptoms and akathisia rapidly worsened, psychiatrist Dr. Bob Johnson told the court.

“It is hard to convey to a non-medical audience how distressing akathisia can be,” Johnson told the court. According to the Independent, psychiatrists for the prosecution will testify that Harman has a personality disorder that contributed to him committing the murder, and that akathisia is not a mental disorder.

Murder accused was unable to refrain from killing the deceased because of medication withdrawal, psychiatrist tells court (Irish Independent, July 18, 2014)

10 COMMENTS

    • They’ll have to do a “Lord Denning”.
      Its clear that the drugs caused Psychosis (Akathisia) in a person that was not originally psychotic (and the staff did not have a clue).
      It usually ends in Suicide, but this time it ended in Homicide.
      If they accept drug induced Severe Adverse Reaction it would open the floodgates.

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    • Drugs are awesome, the guy is so mentally ill he has to be locked up for life in a secure mental institution and given more of the drugs to keep him “stable”. Unless there’s a miracle.
      Btw, everyone who’s on these drugs or withdrawing should be automatically not guilty and the responsibility should go to the prescribing psychiatrist – I believe that’s called involuntary intoxication. That should be especially true for people who are given these drugs without their consent.

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  1. I have tried to describe the horrors of Zyprexa withdrawal, it’s insanity from hell. When I say “from hell” I mean the real thing.

    Intense overwhelming all consuming fear , that’s what hell is. Most people think it’s “fire and brimstone” outside painful stuff like that but no, that is not what hell is.

    “He had racing thoughts and was given hot milk and encouraged to go to bed…”

    The only relief I got from the hell was pacing back and forth in my house for hours on end wile fearing death, permanent brain damage and vomiting out the back door when needed, that part of the withdrawal went on for weeks.

    Have some milk and goto bed ?

    Zyprexa is murder.

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    • One reason Zyprexa withdrawal leads to insanity is because during withdrawal you CAN NOT sleep, the relax and sleep system just does not work at all and you are stuck awake until you go insane just like any human being that stays awake long enough for any reason.

      Then there is this too http://www.google.com/search?q=supersenstivity+psychosis

      It is hard to convey to a person who never lived Zyprexa withdrawal how distressing passing though the gates of hell can be.

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      • I have the impression that people with psychotic experiences who never took psychiatric drugs are much more easier to talk with, than people who have psychotic experiences after they got off neuroleptics (mostly without slow tapering).

        For some people neuroleptics are hell. They feel horrible when they take them and they get horrible withdrawal effects when they don’t. And instead of getting support for tapering off and offering alternative approaches, they are always pushed back into the psychiatric system and get stripped of their rights.

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        • You are right E Silly
          Because when a person has never been on anti psychotics they are experiencing their own feelings, no matter how frightening these feelings are.
          When a person experiences a chemical reaction as a result of ‘anti psychotic’ drug exposure they are experiencing a totally different phenomenon – for me this was the most frightening experience of my entire life.
          I had no idea what was going on or how long it would last. It wasn’t just the neurological discomfort – it was the the very dangerous and ‘out of control’ mental state I was in. I have attempted suicide twice in these circumstances.

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      • I made the best decision even to stop taking this shit after it made me basically narcoleptic plus giving me a binge eating attack shortly before I collapsed into drug-induced sleep. Have I taken this shit for longer I’d probably not be able to eat or sleep at all.
        I was lucky with that but I totally sympathise with you – I can only imagine how bad the withdrawal can be.

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    • Btw, what are the nurses and doctors in these institutions anyway? There should be someone there with the person to help him through the withdrawal, if not medically, which there is o good way to do, than at least psychologically. The only thing they know is to drug people up to their nostrils and pretend it’s not their fault when shit hits the fan.

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