Paxil Plaintiff Can't Prove Causation for 2002 Suicide, Judge Says

ROME, Ga. - A Georgia court has awarded summary judgment in a Paxil suicide case after determining that the plaintiff cannot prove causation if the prescribing physician testifies that he would not have altered his treatment based on current warnings for the drug. Dietz v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., No. 07-77 (N.D. Ga.).

Judge Robert L. Vining of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled Dec. 9 that because the physician testified he would have prescribed Paxil even if it were accompanied by the type of warning advocated by the plaintiffs, the drug could not have proximately …