This story — of the Houston mother who systematically killed her five children ages 6 months to 7 years, and of her husband’s public statement of support for her in the midst of his mindnumbing grief — is unbearably tragic. Andrea Yates suffered from recurrent postpartum depression and had just lost her father several months ago. She did not respond the second time around to the antidepressant medication (unspecified) that had helped her when she had become depressed after she bore her previous child. Now for the potential righteous indignation — was she being treated by a psychiatrist or given an expedient antidepressant prescription by her obstetrician or primary care provider?

Road Rage Leads to Shooting, Suicide. Cut off by a pickup truck driver on a California highway, a motorist confronts and assaults the man from the pickup despite a handgun in plain view; he’s shot point blank in the face and killed. Two weeks later, the pickup driver returns to the very site, calls 911 on his cellphone, states he is going to “serve justice on myself” and inflicts a lethal gunshot wound to himself. Should I be surprised that he had access to a gun the second time? ABC And here’s a case where a dramatic, heroic police intervention stops a suicide and is captured on the police cruiser’s video camera. CNN

“This is catastrophic in my office, with patients coming in and demanding a drug they saw on television.” Doctors want AMA to seek ban on prescription drug ads for consumers — “The American Medical Association would urge the government to ban prescription drug ads from television, newspapers and magazines under a proposal many doctors say is needed to keep patients from being misinformed.” First AMA position in a long time that I, as a physician (but not an AMA member) can get behind. Proponents note that ads undermine physician credibility if a physician thinks the advertised drug isn’t the best choice (“but they said on TV…”). And it often won’t be, of course, since the pharmaceutical companies’ best interests in spinning a product to you have nothing to do with your best interests as a consumer. ABC