Family Murderers: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives on the Insanity Defense

By Ambarin S. Faizi, DO fpamed Forensic Psychiatry Associate Navy veteran Robert Fisher killed his wife, his son, and daughter in their Scottsdale, Arizona home, before setting it on fire in April 2001. Authorities believe he committed the murders because he thought his wife was planning to leave him, and he did not want to […]

Should the Trial of James Holmes be the beginning of the end for use of psychiatric testimony in court to judge guilt or innocence? “

The following is a post from the Psychiatric Times LinkedIn page byJohn Liebert, MD CM Psychiatrist in Scottsdale, Arizona. Following his post, Mark Levy MD has added a lengthy comment The Trial of James Holmes “Despite that hurdle for prosecutors, legal observers say Mr. Holmes’s lawyers are facing huge obstacles. For weeks, people who lost […]

Vetting System for Pilots May Lessen Chances of Germanwings Repeat

The following article from the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association is a follow up on previous blog posts on this fpamed.com site concerning the GermanWings crash, pilot depression and cockpit screening for potentially dangerous signs of mental illness. From the American Psychiatric Association’s PsychiatricNews: by Aaron Levin, 07 May 2015 No evaluation process is […]

Relying on Self-reported Emotional Impairment by Pilots is Inadequate Risk Assessment

Charles Saldanha, MD Forensic Psychiatrist Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF That the co-pilot at the controls of the Germanwings airliner did not fully disclose his mental health condition is tragic, but not surprising. The current reliance on self-report of mental health diagnoses and treatment is likely to generate many false negatives. People with mental health […]

Co-pilot in Germanwings Crash Alleged to Have Hidden Mental Illness from Employer

Mark I Levy MD Forensic Psychiatrist Medical Director Forensic Psychiatric Associates, LP Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine According to a March 28, 2015 article in the New York Times, the co-pilot who locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed a German Wings aircraft flying from Spain to Germany, killing […]