Smith 'had personality disorder'

Anna Nicole Smith had "a borderline personality disorder" and was addicted to prescription medications, a hospital psychiatrist has told a court.

Dr Nathalie Maullin added the medication given to the model by a doctor now on trial was "overkill" for the kind of pain she was describing.

Maullin said she was on staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in April 2006 when Anna Nicole was brought in pregnant and in withdrawal from anti-anxiety drug Xanax and the pain killer methadone. The celebrity model told her she had gone "cold turkey," discontinuing her medications all at once because she was concerned for the welfare of her expected baby.

By doing that, Maullin said, she had actually endangered the baby and herself. The doctor said she quickly resumed her medication with Methadone and began weaning her off Xanax, both of which had been prescribed by Dr Sandeep Kapoor, a defendant in the drug conspiracy case.

"My thoughts were these were very hardcore medications to be giving for the kind of pain she was demonstrating," said Maullin. "She was on medication that seemed like overkill for the type of pain she was in."

She said it was difficult to get a medical history from Anna Nicole because she was "putting on a show" and was deferring questions to her lawyer-boyfriend, Howard K Stern, who was with her at all times.

Kapoor, Stern and Dr Khristine Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide excessive opiates and sedatives to the model. They are also charged with prescribing drugs to an addict, but are not charged with causing her 2007 overdose death.