Litigation and the toxicity of psychotropic drugs

Abstract

All drugs have side effects and given the increase in litigation for medical negligence that has occurred in Ireland in recent years, it would not be surprising to find that clinicians prescribing psychotropic drugs would also become the target for legal procedures if they fail to warn the patient about the possible side effects and toxicity of the drugs they are prescribing. The two extremes of the problem may be illustrated by the litigation carried out against some pharmaceutical firms and prescribers of benzodiazepines and the lack of such proceedings resulting from deaths of depressed patients who take an overdose of a prescribed antidepressant.