Lawsuit Alleging Psychosis Caused by Generic Corticosteroid Dismissed as Preempted

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge has dismissed as preempted a lawsuit in which a woman alleged that her ingestion of generic methylprednisolone, a corticosteroid, caused her to kill her pets and attempt suicide.

In an Aug. 19 order, Judge Thomas L. Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee relied upon Mensing v. Pliva in ruling that the defendant manufacturers were prohibited by federal law from unilaterally enhancing the drug’s warnings.

On June 7, 2018, Megan Kettner’s doctor prescribed methylprednisolone to treat poison ivy. Within days she became “increasingly erratic, argumentative, and irrational.” She …