Louis Karlin had already survived lung cancer when he found that his cancer had spread to his brain. His doctor prescribed large doses of prednisone to shrink the tumors.

Too bad that neither Mr. Karlin, his wife of 50 years, nor his son knew that “psychic derangements” are side effects of prednisone.

Soon after going onto the high dosage of prednisone, Louis Karlin killed his wife of 50 years and then himself.

Mr. Karlin’s son Roger is an internal medicine specialist. A few days after his parents’ deaths, Roger stated that the man at the center of the murder-suicide was not the father he knew. “We suspect that the prednisone psychosis, not simply despair over his life situation, caused him to respond in a totally uncharacteristic manner.”

The Broward County Medical Examiner noted that psychic derangement occurs in 1% to 2% of people taking these high doses. He added, “It might well explain his behavior. I have no way to directly answer the question.”

SOURCE: September 1, 1993, Miami Herald.