Join us on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, 6pm BST, 7pm CEST

In this presentation, David Healy, along with panelists Jim Gottstein and Christopher Lane, poses a question for all of us to consider. There is overwhelming evidence from clinical studies and from tragic events that antidepressants can cause homicide. Judges and prosecutors both acknowledge this to be true. However, no jury has ever acquitted a person for homicide on the basis of a drug they drug. If the person shows any hint of intent, we convict them, not the drug.

The only hope of acquittal is if there is evidence that the killing happened in an “automatic state,” like sleepwalking. Yet, most of our behaviors are in fact automatic (reflexive and unconscious), and SSRIs reshape the sensory inputs that drive these reflexes, with relatively immediate effects on our personality and potential our character. Doesn’t that make a case for acquittal?

This webinar will explore this effect that SSRIs can have, and explore whether we, as a society and in the court of law, can draw a line between whether a person is “present”—or not “present”--at the time a crime is committed. It will also explore cultural, political and legal factors that block acquittals.