Doctors say Andrea Yates today knows full well she murdered her five children. Facing a life term in her own personal hell, she heard her family plead for the jury to let her live.

Critics say Yates and her children are victims not only of her psychotic delusions, but also of corporate and government policies that hide information on dangerous side-effects of mind-alerting drugs. Yates said she believed her children were evil and had to be killed to fulfill a prophecy.

Her doctor had prescribed a common anti-psychotic, Haloperidol -- known as Haldol -- but days before the killings, he told Yates to stop using the drug. UCSF women's mental health specialist psychiatrist Ellen Haller says that abruptly stopping the medication means the psychosis may abruptly come back.

Dr. Haller: "Sometimes it can come back even worse than it had been temporarily, for a short period of time, so when the medicine is stopped abruptly it can be a risky time."

Lilly Sandoval also knows about Haldol. She talked with us -- and publicly, for the first time -- about the horrific murder of her two children by their father. Kevin Carter, she said, had also been taking Haldol. And, like Yates, stopped it abruptly.

It was nine years ago. Carter set fire to their San Francisco house after he suddenly became, according to Sandoval, a violent, suicidal pyromaniac, attacking their infant daughters Shelly and Brittany.

Lilly Sandoval: "He set her on fire and then he held Shelly's body under his, but the whole time he was yelling for help, he was crying, and not even a week before that he would never have did that. I don't think he ever would have did that if he weren't on that medication."

While Yates had stopped Haldol just before the murders, she had also just begun large doses of two anti-depressant drugs, including the popular Effexor.

A recent Bay Area lawsuit charged that another related anti-depressant, Paxil, led to another unbelievable murder in San Jose five years ago.

Reynaldo Lacuzong took the medication, and suddenly turned violent.

Don Farber, Lacuzong family attorney: "He led a beautiful life, never had any problems ... took 10 milligrams of Paxil with his physician's prescription and three days later he killed his two children and himself.

On behalf of the family, Farber sued drug manufacturer Glaxo-Smith-Klein, claiming that FDA-approved drug information is misleading ... intentionally leaving out suicide and violence as potential drug side effects.

The Lacuzong case, now resolved, was one of many against drug manufacturers.

Don Farber: "Let the physician and the patient make up their own mind as to whether a drug may be risky, and when symptoms arise soon thereafter they might know what's going on, but right now they're kept in the dark, and I think that's a crime."

The FDA just required a new warning to be put on Paxil regarding discontinuation of treatment, and today reached agreement with manufacturers to increase monitoring drug safety.

The FDA says its studies show no increased suicide or violence with Paxil or other anti-depressants, but critics charge such information is available. It's just ignored.

On the information sheet for the anti-psychotic drug Haldol, it says there's no evidence of problems when abruptly stopping the medication, despite doctors' clinical experience to the contrary.

So critics say, had accurate drug warnings been required and heeded, the Yates murders and other deaths might have been prevented.

WEB LINKS:

• International Coalition for Drug Awareness

• Psychiatric Drug Facts: Dr. Peter R. Breggin

• FDA Web Site

• Effexor

• Haloperidol (WebMD Info)

• Prozac Official Page

• Zoloft Official Page

• Wellbutrin SR Official Page

• Celexa Official Page

• Paxil Official Page

• National Institute of Mental Health on St. John's Wort

• WebMD

• Dr.Koop

• DepressionDepot

• National Institute of Mental Health

• ImmuneSupport.com