Anna Nicole Smith was an addict, psychiatrist says

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A psychiatrist who treated Anna Nicole Smith for drug dependency testified Tuesday the former Playmate fit the legal definition of an addict.

However, under questioning by a judge, Dr. Nathalie Maullin said she never used the words “addict” or “addiction” when discussing the celebrity model’s problems with her, her personal doctor Sandeep Kapoor or her boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern.

Stern, Kapoor and Dr. Khristina Eroshevich are charged with conspiring to provide controlled substances to Smith. All have pleaded not guilty.

The charging document in the case specifically states that Stern, Kapoor and Eroshevich “acted with knowledge that Anna Nicole Smith was an addict.” Prosecutors are trying to prove the defendants had that knowledge.

Smith died in February 2007 of an accidental overdose.

Maullin, who treated Smith during a brief hospital stay when she was pregnant in April 2006, was quizzed by Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry on the addiction issue.

“She was never trying to get high?” he asked.

“I never thought she was trying to get high. I think she wanted to tune out,” the psychiatrist said.

Maullin said she treated Smith when she in apparent withdrawal from pain and anti-anxiety medications.

Smith had legitimate pain issues that were being treated with a combination of drugs, she testified.

Maullin previously testified that she tried to set up a program to wean Smith off prescription painkillers but found her uncooperative and hostile during her stay at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The testimony was part of a preliminary hearing to decide whether Stern and the doctors should stand trial.