The West Virginia Record
By Lawrence Smith
May 28, 2010

RIPLEY — The murder-suicide of a Jackson County couple is at the center of a wrongful death, and product liability suit against New York pharmaceutical company.

Forest Laboratories and Forest Pharmaceuticals are named as co-defendants in a lawsuit filed in Jackson Circuit Court on April 30 by Robin J. Hall. In her six-count complaint, Hall, 49, a resident of Staats Mill, alleges Forest failed to alert both her father, and his physician of potentially dangerous side-effects of medication he was taking which resulted in him taking the life of his wife, then his own.

Located in New York, N.Y., Forest Laboratories is the parent company of Forest Pharmaceuticals based in St. Louis, Mo. Forest Pharmaceuticals handles the manufacture, sell and distribution of all Forest products in the United States.

In her suit, Hall says her father, Robert Raines, was prescribed Celexa by his doctor on April 24, 2008. Later that day, Raines purchased Celexa in 20 mg tablets.

Celexa is the brand name for Citalopram, a psychoactive drug in the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. It is used mostly for treatment of depression by altering a person’s serotonin levels.

Forest, Hall alleges, was aware Celexa caused an increased risk of suicidal behavior in people over 65, yet failed to conduct any further testing or investigation. Also, she alleges in its promotional materials, Forest failed to warn not only patients, but also physicians and pharmacists of that risk.

As early as Oct. 15, 2004, Forest was aware of the causality between SSRI drugs like Celexa and suicidal behavior in children. It was then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Forest to put a “black box warning” on Celexa for anyone under the age of 24 about the potential risk of suicidal behavior.

Read entire:  http://www.wvrecord.com/news/227152-anti-depressant-led-to-elderly-couples-murder-suicide-jackson-suit-claims