Man strangles wife after AD withdrawal

[pboy]

I read this in yesterdays paper, and found an article online here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/eu...rime.strangle/

Extract:

"A British man who strangled his wife in his sleep while dreaming that she was an intruder walked free from court Friday after the case against him was withdrawn, prosecutors said.

One night, Thomas -- who experts said may have been suffering worsening dreams due to withdrawal from anti-depressants -- experienced a violent nightmare in which he attacked and fought an intruder and got him in a headlock, only to wake and find he had strangled his wife"

[pboy]

More:

"It is understood that Mr Thomas had been taking antidepressants, but that they had made him impotent and he had stopped taking them in order to be intimate with his wife during the holiday. The couple were childhood sweethearts who had been married for 40 years."

http://www.4rfv.co.uk/nationalnews.asp?id=103036

"Today Paul Skett, an expert in prescription drugs, told Swansea Crown Court that the defendant was taking three separate drugs to combat depression and hand tremors.

He said that Thomas had stopped taking them as he believed they affected 'his performance in bed'.

The court heard the couple slept in separate rooms at home but were 'intimate' while on holiday, when they shared a bed in their camper van.

Dr Skett said Thomas would have experienced nightmares after coming off the drugs he was taking.

He said: 'The anti-depressant should be slowly withdrawn, over at least two weeks.

'Withdrawal will cause some sleep disturbances, most notably very vivid dreams during withdrawal.'

Dr Skett told the jury that one of the effects of hand tremor drugs is to inhibit rapid eye movement sleep which is associated with dreaming.

He said: 'With withdrawal you get a rebound effect where the individual suffers more rapid eye movement and more dreaming.

'These can be very vivid and take the form of nightmares.'

Thomas was also taking tablets for high blood pressure which he carried on taking.

The jury also heard strands of Thomas's hair showed he may have stopped taking the drugs up to two months before he killed his wife.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/a...#ixzz0XbfcstSS
"

[scotia21]

That is so sad. That poor man will be in his own hell for the rest of his life. Damn drugs !

[Samalabear]

I had these in poop-out in the extreme in the last three years on Paxil. For me it was one of the first things that got better right after CT, so these vivid dreams can happen at any time with these drugs. My dad had the same situation in the year before he died. He had been switched to Paxil CR, as I had, in '03, and his first head injury was as a result of diving out of bed one night trying to escape something. He smashed his forehead. That head injury, of course, didn't kill him. The one on Christmas Day 2003, where he mistook a door in my aunt's house for the bathroom did. He fell down the stairs to the basement and died three weeks later. He was also taken off the Paxil CT in the hospital and it was reinstated about a week before he died -- two weeks after being CT'd.

In fact, his nightmares had become so vivid that disturbing that he was sleeping in a separate bed from his wife. For myself, I worked very hard to sleep in the middle of my queen-sized bed because after my dad's incident I was afraid I would hurt myself on one of the side tables or worse. Of course, neither of us equated this with Paxil, and it wasn't until I got off Paxil that I started to put all this stuff together. Two people having the same problems, 28 years apart in age, both on Paxil 20 mg. -- him for four years, me for three as of 2003, and both of us suddenly switched to Paxil CR 25 mg., which I'm told is not much different than switching to a new drug.

These drugs are capable of anything at any time. Some people can switch between regular Paxil and CR and not have a problem, or between the Paxil CR and generic. I was switched in 2005 from Paxil CR -- after a Paxil CR recall -- to the generic non-CR form. My life continued to go downhill even faster after that.

[Delynbetter]

I had wondered about AD involvement when I heard about this case.

[sarah]

This is such sad reading from today's Daily Mail. I feel so desperately sorry for the man and his children. I just don't see how the connection isn't being made by the medical profession.

In my Dreams she forgives me................

There's a black granite headstone on Christine Thomas's grave, with a gold leaf inscription that reads: 'In loving memory of Christine Thomas, devoted wife of Brian, loving mother and grandmother, who passed away July 26, 2008, aged 57. Forgive me my love until we meet again.'
For Brian, her husband of 40 years, there is no forgiveness. He says there can't be.

Never will be. Christine Thomas was killed as she slept in her husband's arms in their camper van on holiday in Aberporth, West Wales.
Happy couple: Brian described his wife of 40 years Christine as 'my life, my world'

The cause of death was strangulation. The man arrested and charged with killing her was Brian.
Last week, Brian, who suffers with the chronic sleep disorder automatism, walked free from Swansea Crown Court after a jury heard how he throttled the woman he describes as 'my life, my world' during a nightmare, believing her to be an intruder who had broken into the camper van.
He awoke to discover his wife's lifeless body beside him and dialled 999.

'What have I done? I've been trying to wake her. I think I've killed my wife. Oh my God. I thought someone had broken in,' he sobbed to the operator. 'I must have been dreaming or something. What have I done?'

Today, speaking for the first time since his acquittal, he says there is little consolation in the court's reprieve.

'The thought that this has happened to her because of me is my life sentence,' he says.
'The memory of being in that camper and looking down at her is with me all the time. I'll never forgive myself, ever. It's like a hatred - a hatred of myself. Why did I do it?'
There are tears in Brian's eyes as he asks this, but there are few words of comfort to offer.

His daughters Debbie, 40, and Claire, 35, have tried. They are desperately worried about their father. For them, this has never been a question of forgiveness.
'When the police told me my mother had been found dead and my father had been arrested because he'd made a call saying: "I think I've killed my wife," I didn't believe it,' says Debbie frankly.
'He protected her so much. He did everything for her. He'd paint her toenails, dye her hair, do the shopping. Watching the state he's in has been horrific.
'Nightmare': Brian and Christine, pictured, had decided to stay an extra night in their camper van when the tragedy happened in Aberporth, West Wales
'There's nothing to forgive him for, because we know how close they were. It's never entered my head it was anything but an accidental tragedy.
'I suppose when you read something like this, it just sounds unreal. People must think: "Oh yeah, likely story." But unless you're in the family you don't understand.'
In fact, within moments of meeting this gentle, affable man, the dark circles of sleepless despair distinct beneath his eyes, any scepticism is quickly dispelled.
Christine was not just his wife, she was his best friend. They walked together, cycled together, swam together and raised two daughters and five grandchildren together.

There's little doubt he'd have gone to the ends of the earth to make her happy.
'Daddy's sleepwalking used to be a family joke,' Debbie says. 'We all used to laugh about it. Mummy would say: "Oh your father's been at it again. He's filled the bath up and flooded the place."
'I've done so much research on automatism since this has happened. I wish I'd done the research before. There's no punishment the court could have given my father that's a patch on how he punishes himself.'
Before the trial, Brian, who admits he is often suicidal, was sectioned for three weeks and remanded in Swansea Prison for ten months.

It would be easy to say he's been to hell and back in the past 16 months, but in truth he's still there.
We meet in the comfortable house in Neath, South Wales, that was the couple's home for 15 years.
When Brian returned here for the first time after Christine's death, he found her nightdress still folded on the pillow.
'We had separate bedrooms for ten years because of my sleepwalking, but as I used to say to my brother: "We may be in separate beds, but the carpet between the rooms is well worn."
'Each night, we'd have a kiss and cuddle first and then I'd go to my room, and the same in the morning. If she woke first, she'd come to my bed, or if I woke first I'd go to hers. We never got up without being in each other's beds first.

'It was unbelievable walking back in here without Christine. Her nightie, the white one with flowers, was on her pillow.

I can still smell her scent on it. I'd sit here talking to her, touching the things she's touched, or go upstairs and lie on the bed with her nightie.
'I feel so guilty. I'm trying to come to the conclusion-now that this was a tragedy and nothing else, but I've got to live with it. It's my tragedy.'
Of course, the single element of this case which gripped so many people was the idea of someone carrying out a fatal assault while they were fast asleep. Can our unconscious minds really control our bodies to such a degree?
Brian describes how he's suffered with his chronic sleep disorder since he was a child.
There are times he'd wake up with his feet cut to pieces and stones in his bed from where he'd sleepwalked outside.
He'd cook himself beans on toast in his sleep, or even, incredible as it may seem, swim in a nearby canal.
Little wonder that Christine took to locking the house at night and taking the keys to bed with her so Brian couldn't get out of the house.
The disorder, he says, had worsened in the past five years after he was prescribed anti-depressants.
The sleep automatism was, he says, exacerbated during the regular spells when he stopped taking the drugs so he could make love to his wife.
He says: 'I used to come off them every two months so we could have a relationship, because when you're on them nothing happens.

'A side-effect of coming off them was hallucinations. Now, when I think about it, I realise that most of my problems came when I was off the the drugs, but I never even thought about it until this.'
Sure enough, Brian, a retired steel worker, had not been taking his anti-depressants for a week when he decided to take an impromptu holiday last year to cheer up his wife who, having fought skin cancer four years before, had discovered a black mark on her breast bone.
'She'd been to see the doctor and was waiting for some test results,' he says. 'She was so upset, so I said: "Come on. Let's go and jump in the camper. We're going away for a week." '

They were returning home with their puppy, a King Charles spaniel called Lottie, at the end of a 'wonderful' week when a traffic diversion took them to Aberporth.
'I saw the sign and said: "Let's go and have a look." As we got there the tide was in, the sky and the water were a vivid blue. It was stunning. I said: "We're not going home, we're staying the night.'
After a meal at a pub, they walked the puppy on the beach as the sun set.
'It was beautiful, unbelievable. We walked on the beach holding hands watching the sun go down. When we got back to the camper, Chris went to bed and I watched the news until 11.30pm and then I got into bed with her.
'The way Chris and I slept was what was described in court as the spooning position. I'd never heard of it before, but I always slept with her back towards me and my right arm under her neck and my left arm over her.
'Anyway, we were lying like that and at about midnight some boy-racers started up outside - six or eight cars with youngsters coming down into the car park doing handbrake turns, coming up to the camper and spinning.
'This went on for about 30 minutes. I said: "I'm going to have to say something," but Chris said: "Don't, you know what they're like these days. They might have a knife or God knows what."
'The third time they came into the car park, I jumped into the driving seat, pulled the blinds back and drove up to an upper car park to get away from them.

'I went back to bed. Chris had gone to sleep. I was lying there thinking: "Have I put the alarm on that warns against intruders?" I didn't want to test it because it's so loud that it would have woken Chris up.
'As I went to sleep, it must have been on my mind that the camper wasn't secure. Then - I don't know how much later it was - I recall seeing Chris in bed over the other side of the camper and someone on top of her. All I said was: "You b******s, you got in here." I grabbled this man round the neck and pulled him off.'
But, there was no intruder. Brian was having a nightmare. 'I don't know how long it was before I woke up. I was just lying there thinking: "Is this one of my dreams again?" Chris was lying in my arms.

'She was cold, so I pulled the double sleeping bag over us, and I was just lying there thinking: "What's happened here? Is someone in here?"
'I managed to slip my arm from under Christine's neck - she was still lying in the same position on her side - and I got out to switch the light on to see where this man was.
'I was really confused. I said: "Chris, come on. We've got to get outside, dear."

'I still believed at that point that there was someone in there. I was shaking her and I turned her over and thought: "What the hell's happened to her?" I was trying to wake her and there was nothing.
'All I could hear was two breaths coming out of her and one of her eyes was slightly open. I thought: "The b******s have got hold of her and she's passed out. I've got to get her to hospital."
'I started driving out of the car park, then thought: "I can't drive this through the night." 'I reversed back into the car park and thought I'd try to get an air ambulance. I tried to wake Christine again - but there was nothing. Then I phoned 999 and was screaming down the phone. I was hysterical.
'Suddenly, I realised there wasn't anyone else in the camper - there never had been. It was Chris all the time. I'd done that to her.'
Brian snaps his arm hard around an imaginary neck. There are tears rolling down his cheeks as he does this. 'When the police and ambulance arrived, they closed off the scene and wouldn't let me go near her. Then they said they had to take me to
Aberystwyth police station. When they got me in the police car, it came over the radio that they'd pronounced her dead at the scene. I was just, well... ' he is sobbing now.
'I said: "What have I done? What have I done to my wife. She's my world. Leave me out here. I've got to be with her. If she's dead, I've got to die with her.'
Brian was taken to a police cell before being arrested on suspicion of causing the death of his wife.
He says he can't remember much after that - only that he wanted to die.
'They brought me some sandwiches on a china plate. I hid it under the blanket and intended to smash it and slit my throat with it. There was no argument. I didn't want to be alive. I wanted to be with her.'
Police surgeons administered a sedative before sectioning Brian. Officers contacted Debbie to inform her of Christine's death and her father's arrest.

Debbie called her sister Claire, who recalls: 'Debbie was just screaming: "Mummy's dead and Daddy's been arrested" - screaming and screaming.
'The first thing that came to my mind was that someone had attacked her and he was protecting her and had got himself arrested.'
But then, she was told her father may have killed her mother.
She adds: 'When we were driving to Debbie's house, I thought: "It's a mistake. There's no way he could do that."'
But it wasn't a mistake. The next day, Debbie and Claire were taken to identify their mother's body.
'They wouldn't let us touch her or go near her because of the investigation,' says Debbie.
'We saw her through a window and couldn't even give her a kiss. Claire was just screaming to Mum: "Get up, get up."'
They remember the following months as a nightmare.

First, once Brian had been discharged from the psychiatric hospital, and two post-mortems had been carried out, there was the funeral attended by more than 1,000 mourners.
'It was terrible. Daddy was acting as if she was alive in the coffin,' says Debbie.
'He was saying: "Please look after her, be gentle with her." He tried to climb on to her coffin when they lowered it into the ground. He was shouting: "Give her back to me."'

With their grief raw, Christmas came and went almost unmarked by the family. Then came January 4, the day that should have been Brian and Christine's 40th wedding anniversary.
They'd saved to go on an £8,000, three-week Caribbean cruise.
Instead, Brian took the 40 roses, the bottle of champagne and an anniversary card he'd arranged to give Christine on the cruise, and drove to Aberporth. He also took a bottle of pills.
Brian says: 'I fully intended not to come back. I tied the roses and card to a fence - I can't remember what the card said, something like: "I love you for ever."
There was a bloke passing by. I asked him if he'd remove them when they died. I didn't want the place to look untidy.
'He said: "It was you in the camper, wasn't it? I am so sorry. We saw you that night walking along the beach. You were such a beautiful couple."
'I realised I couldn't take my own life because I had our daughters to think about: they'd already lost their mother.
'That's the dream that comes back to me now, walking on that beach with Christine.'
There has been one other dream, though - one that Brian had a few weeks before his trial began.
'I dreamed of Chris, and she told me: "It's not your fault." I know she's forgiven me,' he says.
'But I just keep thinking: Why? Why did we stay on an extra day? Why didn't we go home that day? Why should I be walking the streets now when she can't?'
Brian has been told he must never stop taking his medication again, and must report to his doctor for regular blood tests. He has also been warned not to share a bed with anyone.
'The blood tests are to make sure I take my tablets regularly,' he says. 'But there's no reason not to take them now.'
He looks at me with eyes that are blank with sorrow, and I understand that though he may have walked free from court, this is a broken man - one who will never be free from what he has done.

[Samalabear]

Horrible. And condemned to take these medications for the rest of his life. Nothing has been learned from this. This man has been condemned on every level.

[sarah]

Absolutely. I cried when I read that he has been ordered to stay on them for life. He may as well be dead too.

[pboy]

I feel so sorry for this man that he must live with knowing what he has done for the rest of his life. I am not surprised that the AD issue has been ignored, instead they have focused more on his sleep disorder.