Expert: Meds may have impaired teen in texting suicide case

Defense Attorney Cory Madera makes notes as defendant Michelle Carter listens during her trail at Taunton Juvenile Court with attorney Joseph Cataldo in Taunton, Mass., Monday, June 12, 2017. Carter is charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging Conrad Roy III to kill himself in July 2014. (Faith Ninivaggi/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A psychiatrist says a Massachusetts woman charged with using text messages to encourage her boyfriend to kill himself when they were teenagers was on medication that impairs the ability to be empathetic.

Michelle Carter is charged with manslaughter in the 2014 suicide of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III.

Prosecutors say the then-17-year-old Carter pressured Roy to take his own life through a torrent of text messages. They say she told Roy to “get back in” his truck when he became frightened while trying to kill himself with carbon monoxide.

Carter’s lawyer has argued that Roy had attempted suicide previously and made his own decision to take his own life.

Dr. Peter Breggin testified Monday that Carter was taking Celexa, an anti-depressant targeting the brain’s frontal lobe, which controls decision-making and empathy.