GSK company memo shows company aware of homicidal side effects of Paxil
Jim
ST. AUGUSTINE -- The murder trial of Leslie Demeniuk took a surprise turn Wednesday when defense attorneys revealed an internal document from a pharmaceutical company that they say shows a company scientist acknowledging a link between antidepressants and homicide.
Defense attorneys Bill Sheppard and Gray Thomas said a scientist in the 2000 internal report from GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Paxil, described extremely rare side effects of antidepressants that include homicidal thoughts and homicide.
Prosecutors didn't have the report at the trial because it was buried in boxes of files when the defense handed it over as required by law.
The report plays directly into the insanity defense of Demeniuk, a 36-year-old Ponte Vedra Beach woman who her attorneys say was temporarily insane and involuntarily intoxicated on antidepressants, Xanax and alcohol when she fatally shot her twin sons on March 17, 2001.
Her attorneys started presenting their case Wednesday afternoon, the fourth day of the trial, after the state rested. Their first witness was David Menkes, psychiatrist from the University of Wales, who testified about the rare side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly called SSRIs. This kind of antidepressant includes Zoloft and Paxil.
Menkes said SSRIs are associated with side effects that include "hostility," and then he said the definition of hostility includes homicidal thoughts and homicide. This provoked an immediate objection from Assistant State Attorney Noah McKinnon and concerns from Circuit Judge John Alexander.
When asked to support Menkes' definition of hostility, the defense introduced the company scientist's internal report. The author had worked at Smith Kline Beecham, the company that is now GlaxoSmithKline.
The jury was removed from the courtroom after McKinnon's objection, and a heated argument began.
"This testimony shows the drug companies themselves have noted, here are effects . . . observed during treatment with this particular medicine," Thomas said.
"They [the drug companies] don't want the public to get the documents," Sheppard said. The defense obtained the documents through a subpoena, he said.
This was a victory for the defense because Alexander issued an order in October that limited Menkes' testimony "regarding suicidal and homicidal thoughts and behaviors that result from ingestion of SSRIs." That order followed a months-long dispute over the insanity defense that took the case from St. Johns County to the 5th District Court of Appeal and back.
The jury was brought back into court under a warning from Alexander.
"I'm advising you that when you hear terms such as association, it does not automatically mean causation," the judge said.
Then Menkes re-stated that there was an association between SSRIs and side effects such as hostility, adding that the company's definition for hostility included homicidal thoughts and homicide.
He also testified about public health advisories published by the Food and Drug Administration that warned of a link between the antidepressants and worsened suicidal thoughts in a fraction of patients. He then testified as to the Black Box warning that the regulator now requires on SSRIs, warning about the rare but possible dangers associated with the drug.
"It's considered to be particularly important," Menkes said.
The prosecution raised the possibility of having another "Frye hearing," in which attorneys debate whether a defense is generally accepted by the scientific community.
McKinnon told the judge that Demeniuk's lawyers were trying to "circumvent" a court order that limited any testimony regarding suicidal or homicidal thoughts resulting from the the drugs.
"I'm deeply concerned that what occurred here . . . is an attempt to avoid the ruling you made," McKinnon said.
Thomas opposed another Frye hearing, saying that the antidepressants were only a fraction of the defense, and that the case is not "single-faceted."
Alexander declined to issue an order Wednesday night, and the issue will be discussedmore this morning.
"I'm concerned that we are walking a plank," the judge said.ke...@jacksonville.com, (904) 819-3546