Zoloft Blamed in Grandparents' Death

Sept. 9, 2004 -- Christopher Pittman was only 12 when he allegedly gunned down his grandparents in their South Carolina home — and he blames the antidepressant Zoloft for the slayings.

Pittman, now 15, faces two charges of first-degree murder and will be tried as an adult for the November 2001 shooting deaths of Joe Frank and Joy Roberts Pittman. His case focuses on an ongoing debate over whether antidepressants can cause violent reactions in children and teenagers.

Chester County prosecutors say Pittman confessed to killing his grandparents before setting their house on fire and fleeing in the family car. At the time of the slayings, he was being treated for depression. Pittman's father had sent him to live with his paternal grandparents in October 2001 and shortly thereafter a doctor had prescribed Zoloft to the boy.

A month later, Pittman allegedly killed his grandparents. He and defense attorneys blame the killings on an adverse reaction to the antidepressant.

"I didn't notice a change in my behavior until I was off the medication," Pittman said in a statement his father read earlier this year at a hearing before Food and Drug Administration officials. "It made me hate everyone. The smallest things made me blow up. And I started getting into fights, which was not me. I just hated the whole world for no apparent reason. … Then I snapped. I took everything out on my grandparents, who I loved so very much."

In an interview with Good Morning America today, Pittman's maternal grandmother insisted that he had never shown signs of violence before he was placed on Zoloft and that the pills drove him to kill.