Oklahoma experts look at antidepressants

As soon as news hit that the alleged Fort Hood, Texas, shooter was a military psychiatrist, a disturbing thought struck Oklahoma psychologist Gail Poyner.

"I wondered if....

"I think it would be interesting to know if he had been taking an SSRI (antidepressant). It seems, based on news reports, that he was very depressed. He may have taken an SSRI and that may have played a part. Hopefully that will be investigated to determine,” said Poyner, a Ph.D. with a practice in Choctaw.

Poyner was out of state and was shocked to hear of the local allegations against Dr. Stephen Paul Wolf, jailed on murder and assault complaints in connection with the recent stabbing death of his 9-year-old son, Tommy. The Nichols Hills doctor told the medical licensure board that he took antidepressants, records show.

Wolf told the board he was hospitalized for depression and under psychotherapy until his 1988 graduation from medical school at the University of Oklahoma.

He told the board in 1996 that he was hospitalized again for three days in 1995 for acute depression.

"I suffered this as a result of all of the stress in my busy practice of internal medicine and all the demands in making the final arrangements for my marriage,” Wolf wrote in a letter to the board. "I returned to work after my hospitalization on adjusted dosages of antidepressants.”

It is unclear whether antidepressant usage might have played any role in the Nov. 16 stabbing.

"Crimes that involve this horrendous departure from one’s character and typical behavior may warrant an investigation,” Poyner said. "Investigators may want to look into a possible connection between his behavior and a recent introduction or increase in an antidepressant.”

She added that every crime committed by someone taking an antidepressant isn’t necessarily related to the antidepressant. A small percentage of people have a genetic abnormality that can cause a violent reaction to certain antidepressants, she said.

"We’re finding there are cases of criminal behavior, especially violent and out-of-character criminal behavior, that may be linked to these antidepressants,” Poyner said.

If there’s blood on someone’s hands, investigate whether antidepressants were in their systems, some experts say. The drugs are considered particularly dangerous when certain patients are just beginning antidepressants, increasing the dosage or getting off antidepressants, Poyner said.

But other experts say there’s no clear evidence that antidepressants and violence go hand-in-hand.

Fort Hood raises questions

Dr. Peter Breggin, a medical doctor, former Johns Hopkins University faculty associate and author of "Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Violence, Suicide and Murder,” said he immediately wondered if Maj. Nidal Hasan was self-medicating.

"I think it was very likely,” Breggin said.

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