Leflaw.com

In the news: Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft will turn over internal research documents on the drug to lawyers defending a 15 year old boy who shot and killed his grandparents while taking Zoloft. A forensic psychiatrist has testified that the Zoloft caused the boy to hear voices which told him to kill. Zoloft is not expressly approved by the FDA for use in children and adolescents but such use "off label" use has been prescribed by physicians. In September 2004, an FDA advisory committee called for all antipressants labels to get a black box warning about the risk of increased suicidal tendancies in young people taking these drugs.


Zoloft, a SSRI antidepressant, has been the focus of several patient and family complaints concerning the drug's side effects. Many of the SSRIs have been reported by patients to induce agitated, suicidal or homicidal behavior. Pfizer does list agitation and hypomania and/or mania activation as possible side effects of taking Zoloft. Agitation is actually listed by Pfizer as a common adverse reaction to Zoloft. This agitation is what some patients are claiming made them engage in various illegal agitated behaviors including murder.

Most disturbing is that many of these types of patients had no prior history of illegal activity or agitation prior to taking Zoloft. The FDA has received many letters from Zoloft patients concerning agitation and other severe adverse effects from taking Zoloft. While the FDA did research the patients' complaints in 1991, no correlation between agitated illegal behavior and Zoloft were found by the FDA.

However, further research and better doctor monitoring of patients taking antidepressant was recommended. Ten years later, the problem still persists, and the FDA has not released any further reports. M