Georgia law declares “communications between [a] psychiatrist and patient” privileged and therefore excluded as evidence in a civil proceeding. But what happens when the patient is deceased and his heirs have reason to believe the psychiatrist may be responsible? A divided Georgia Supreme Court recently addressed that question.
Cooksey v. Landry
A young man committed suicide in 2012. He had been under a psychiatrist’s care for many years. A month before the man’s death, the psychiatrist prescribed two common antidepressant drugs. These drugs carried what is known as a “Black Box Warning,” which is the strongest warning the Food and Drug Administration may require for a legal product. The FDA cautioned that use of these two drugs can lead to “an increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in young adults.”