Transcription
I'm Dr. Yseph Whituring, a board-certified psychiatrist, a drug safety expert who used to work at the FDA. And I'm going to be reacting to a video that suggests that Nick Reer, who recently killed his two parents, including the famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner, uh, was actually driven to do this because of psychiatric medications. So, let's jump in and have a look.
>> Based on the information we now have, Nick Reer is not going to plead guilty to these murders. He is going to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. And here's why. We have learned that Nick Reer was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And he was under the care of a psychiatrist and receiving meds. His behavior in the month before the murders uh and this is a quote from sources with direct knowledge was erratic and dangerous. He went to an LA rehab facility in the time before the murders.
>> So, the first thing I'll say about this is I'm not really buying a diagnosis of schizophrenia in a 32-year-old male. Typically, this emerges much earlier, uh, late teens, early 20s, and especially in a young man who has a long history of drug abuse. And so, as it goes on, you know, his behavior becomes very erratic. And it made me question whether that some of this could be due to a medication he's on. So, let's keep on listening.
>> He had been to a number, but in particular this one that specializes in treating mental illness. It's really expensive. It costs $70,000 a month. Lots of rich, powerful parents send their kids to this facility uh who have mental illness. And Nick was there. Um, in the 3 to four weeks, and this is so important, in the 3 to four weeks leading up to the murders, Nick's medications were changed. And they were changed because he was exhibiting more and more erratic and dangerous behavior. But when they were changed, they weren't right. And it was making him, as one source put it, crazy. And they doctors were trying to adjust the meds, but it wasn't working. and he was getting more and more erratic.
>> Okay, so let's talk about this. Um, so he's at this um very high-end treatment facility. He's get he's given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. So to me, what this is smelling like already, you know, when they talk about the medications not making him better is one, he's on an anti-csychotic. And so for whatever re, you know, he gets this diagnosis, maybe maybe he was having some psychosis from drug use or or something else was going on or maybe even a medication was making him start to have these symptoms and he gets put on a medication for schizophrenia. So an antiscychotic. Well, what do we know about them? Well, we know that antiscychotics have a very long history of causing impulsive, violent, and sometimes even homicidal behavior. Now this isn't news at all to anyone in psychiatry. I mean even back in the 1980s we have lots of journal articles um about antiscychotics causing something called athesia which is an intense irritability and restlessness. People feel like incredibly on edge and uncomfortable. And it's in this setting uh when they're so on edge that they can um engage in acts of violence. And you know in a little bit we hear about how he was behaving at this um party that he was at. He was on edge and impulsive and it was unusual and he even gets in a yelling match with his dad there. On top of that, you know, not only is this listed in the medical research, it's also clearly in the drug label. So, for instance, if we look at the drug label for Ailify, I mean, you can go in there. This is an antiscychotic probably similar to one he was given. Um, it's probably that or cap lighter or something like that. you know, if it a lot of these really expensive places, they use the brand new medications. But yeah, something like Ailify, look, you know, homicidal ideation, it's it's right here in the warnings um of the drug, you know, aggression. Um, you know, on top of that, you go up here and you know, suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Um, and so there's these drugs are known to make uh some people suicidal in rare instances. You know, they can cause anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, acia. That's the thing that really sets people off. And so, how do we know, you know, whether this is like schizophrenia or this is an adverse drug reaction? Well, it's all about the details. And this is what's going to come out in the trial. Why was he diagnosed with schizophrenia? Did that just emerge randomly out of the blue at 32 years of age or or was it because of some drug use? I know, you know, when I looked online, I know that Nick had used some methamphetamine in the past. It could have been another drug that's known to cause psychosis. So, was it really schizophrenia or was this a drug induced issue? And then you need to look at whether he has a history of violence. You know, what is his baseline behavior like? You know, I would imagine he, you know, you know, all families have difficulties, but he probably didn't have a history of violence against his parents. You know, maybe it's a strange relationship. Maybe it's a very loving relationship. Clearly, they loved him a lot to put him in that hospital to invite him to that Christmas party with them, with their friends. Um, you know, it sounds like that relationship was still intact. And so they have to look at what happened in that four months leading up to it because this is going to be key for uh his defense and also you know not just the defense but for the family to understand what had happened. Did these changes in behavior were they characteristic of him or did they emerge closely after starting or changing a whole bunch of medications? Because if they're not characteristic of him then it's likely that this is drug induced. Now, from a forensic psychiatric perspective, what they're going to end up doing is they're going to talk to his sister. They're going to talk to people who knew him, and they're going to say, "Hey, what was Nick like, okay, in general?" Well, yeah, he was on and off drugs, but generally he was okay. But then he went to this facility, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. They put him on all these antiscychotics and anti-depressants, and then something changed. You know, the look in his eyes changed, the impulsivity changed, the, you know, he he was hotheaded. That was really new. That was really different. They're also going to talk to his doctors. And it sounds like from the source that TMZ has, even the doctors were worried about the medication. Now, this massively strengthens the case. I mean, if you're the prosecutor for this and you're wanting to put him behind bars, like if you have like family members saying the drugs changed him a lot, if you have doctors saying, "Yeah, this is really uncharacteristic of him." it starts to build kind of a stronger case that this may have been a drug induced uh event. And so that's what that's what I'm going to be listening for as this story unfolds. But but let's go on.
>> Um in addition to that, Nick was abusing substances and we're told the substance abuse worsened the schizophrenia.
>> So that's what we're going to have to check out leading up to the event. Was he on any drugs? You know, what is his UDS showing? Because if there's like methamphetamine in there or something like that, then that that obviously weakens his defense because if you take illicit drugs like that, you can't claim like a the drug made me do it um defense. They say it's it's your own fault for essentially taking illegal drugs. But if you are prescribed drugs by a doctor, you can use that defense that an adverse reaction made you do it. So that'll be really interesting. So all of this paints a picture of someone. In fact, these words were used to us uh by one of these sources with direct knowledge that he was quote out of his head at the time of the murders. So based on everything I know, um this is not going to be a case where they contest that Nick did it. I think they're going to concede it. I don't know that for a fact, but all of the dots that we now have to connect lead us to this is not going to be a uh not guilty plea. I didn't do it. Um this is going to be at least at this point based on everything we know without saying more about sources. Um, if I were a betting man, I would say this is a not guilty by reason of insanity.
>> Not guilty by reason of insanity is one defense, but it's also this is also an involuntary intoxication defense. Um, and which is what is used when someone says that they're having an adverse drug reaction. And so, so that's potentially what they're going to do. I think not guilty by reason of insanity is usually if you want to claim that the schizophrenia made you do it. Again, from the details in this video and the fact that he was 32, new onset schizophrenia, I I don't think so, but but you never know. The other thing that I'll say is the fact that he was out of his head, that is also typical of drug induced violence. The case comes to my mind of um David Carmichael um who actually killed his his young son um due to a drug induced psychosis from an SSRI medication. He had no idea what he did until he woke up in jail later on. People typically describe that. And so that I mean that's how horrific something like this is. If you have one of these incidents, you can essentially come to days later and only then just realize, hey, I was in a delirium or a psychosis and I've just, you know, blown up my entire life. uh to prove that um you have to show that there is a mental disease which there is here. You have to show as a result of that mental disease the person did not understand the nature and quality of their act or that it was legally or morally wrong. So that's going to be the big issue uh in this case I think. Um was this legally or morally wrong? Um look it has worked before. Um, it worked with John Hinckley and um, and as a matter of fact, John Hinckley spent years in a mental institution and was released when doctors said he was okay. So, it is very different from somebody going to prison for a crime. Nick, um, I don't believe, uh, is going to dispute this. I Everything we're seeing, I don't think that's going to happen.
>> Yeah. I mean, he this was clear-cut. I mean I you can see it in other news stories, but they found his apartment where he was sorry his hotel room where he was staying and there was just blood everywhere. It's pretty open and shut that he did it. It looks like
>> but this is feeling like a real case of where he will plead at least not guilty by reason of insanity. That doesn't mean that the juryy's going to automatically buy it, but I just told you what the elements are. And if you want to talk about a mental disease, we're told he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And then the question is um did he understand the nature of what he was doing? Um based on our sources, there will at least be people testifying that he really didn't understand anything. If these details are correct, this is potentially going to be a pretty good defense because I mean this happened while he was under treatment at a psychiatric facility and there may even be, you know, it sounds like he was on leave for this Christmas party, but there may be documentations that the medications were making him unwell. And when you have that from the doctors and the nurses and if people in the family say the same thing and people at the party just say, "Hey, that wasn't Nick. He was out of it. He was be acting strange." And then there's no prior history of this kind of aggression or violence. That could make a pretty compelling case.
>> Zoned out out of his head. It does kind of also explain uh his behavior at the Conan O'Brien Christmas party where you know everything we're hearing is that he was just in another world and he was acting strangely as we reported got in a big argument with his dad. Um and this is hours before um the murders occurred. Um but he was erratic not just that night uh but many days before that. So to be determined. Uh but right now the clearly both the defense and the police are working to investigate the circumstances surrounding the murders. Uh and that involves you know the murder weapon. It involves Nick's conduct and all. But this increasingly is feeling like a case where the defense will argue not guilty by reason of insanity. you know, schizophrenia, a lot of usually what this looks like is a lot of uh um avoidant behavior. You know, people are kind of blunted, flat, lacking motivation, not very social, uh often times they can have prominent hallucinations or delusions. But if Nick's history leading up to this is really more of impulsivity, aggression, being hotheaded, being very tense and on edge and unpredictable, guys, that's not schizophrenia. That looks like a drug induced um side effect. Anyway, that's it for me today. I hope you enjoyed my analysis.