US jury finds that antidepressant did not cause boy to kill his grandparents

A jury has rejected a claim that the antidepressant sertraline caused a boy to kill his grandparents with a shotgun. Christopher Pittman was aged 12 in November 2001 when he shot his grandparents in their heads as they slept. He then set fire to the house and fled in a family car. Now 15, he spent three years in a juvenile jail after his criminal trial was delayed when different lawyers and a new judge became involved. Christopher was tried as an adult in Charleston, South Carolina, and was sentenced last week to 30 years’ imprisonment. He could have been given a life sentence. Prosecutors said Christopher shot his grandparents after they punished him for getting into a fight on a school bus. Their key psychiatric expert, Dr James Ballenger, testified that Christopher killed out of anger. Dr Pamela Crawford, a forensic psychiatrist, said Christopher . .

 

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/extract/330/7489/438-b

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