PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Whitehead, PD
TI  - Causality and collateral estoppel: process and content of recent SSRI litigation
DP  - 2003 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 377--382
VI  - 31
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/31/3/377.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/31/3/377.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2003 Sep 01; 31
AB  - In Tobin v. SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming found that the medication Paxil "can cause some individuals to commit homicide and/or suicide," and that it was a legal cause of the deaths in this case. A motion was recently put before the United States District Court for the District of Utah to adopt the findings of the Tobin case--via the application of collateral estoppel--to a case involving an individual's suicide while prescribed Paxil. This article summarizes these two cases, as reflected in court documents, and comments on limitations of common causality assertions.