'Medications and Criminal Justice'

Co-sponsored by: The Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney, the Australasian Chapter of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health and the Australian & New Zealand Association for Psychiatry, Psychology and the Law.

Speaker:
Professor David Healy MD FRCPsych, North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales, College of Medicine
'Antidepressants and Homicide'

Responses from:
Tania Evers, Barrister, Frederick Jordan Chambers
Jonathan Carne, Forensic Psychiatrist, NSW

Chair:
Tom Molomby SC, Barrister

Convenor:
George Tomossy, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, Executive Director, International Academy of Law and Mental Health

Date: Wednesday 2 November 2005, 6.00pm - 7.30 pm
Venue: Bar Association Common Room, NSW Bar Association, Selborne Chambers, 174 Phillip Street, Sydney Australia 2000
Registration: There is no registration fee for this seminar.

Antidepressants & Homicide
Over the four years, since May 2001, Courts in almost all of the English speaking countries have handed down verdicts involving cases of homicide or other violent behaviours perpetrated by individuals taking an antidepressant.  Some verdicts have exonerated the individual, others have not.  Common to all legal proceedings has been an implicit and in some cases an explicit recognition that the Courts have no rules for the types of involuntary intoxication and consequent violence that might stem from the use of prescription drugs.

This paper will address these issues using a series of case histories and clinical trial data.  It will address the mechanisms of drug induced difficulties but will be primarily concerned with raising these issues in order to stimulate debate on the appropriate legal ways to handle such cases.

Responses to the paper will be provided by Tania Evers and Jonathan Carne.