Peter Braunstein, who has long suffered from mental illness, takes Prozac to treat his depression and overdosed last year in what may have been a suicide attempt, his mother told The New York Sun in what she said was her first interview with the press since police identified her son as the suspect in a Halloween sex attack in Chelsea.

“He’s suicidal,” Angele Braunstein, 75, said of her son from her home in Kew Gardens. She described Mr. Braunstein as a fragile man who could respond to the ongoing public scrutiny by killing himself.

She speculated that he might already be dead. If he is alive and police capture him, “I want him to get psychiatric help,” she said.

Police have been chasing down leads in a search for Mr. Braunstein, 41, since he allegedly dressed up as a fireman on Halloween, set a couple of fires in a woman’s West 24th Street building, knocked on her apartment door, made his way in, and then drugged and molested her for about 13 hours. Investigators have lost the trail of Mr. Braunstein since November 2, when police said the suspect used a MetroCard in the subway system.

Ms. Braunstein said her son suffers from poor self-esteem. He doesn’t “think much of himself,” she said.

Mixing Prozac and beer in October 2004, Mr. Braunstein overdosed in what his mother considered a potential effort to commit suicide. She was in Israel at the time, and a friend found him. Mr. Braunstein was treated at Jamaica Hospital, she said.

Mr. Braunstein also allegedly had a stint in Bellevue’s mental ward last year. “They found him very sane,” Ms. Braunstein said. Bellevue did not respond to a request for comment.

He also is a “sensitive” person who suffered from a deep-seated anger problem, his mother said. “The anger was terrible,” Ms. Braunstein, a teacher, said. While he has wrestled with depression for a long time, it was after he was fired from his writing job at Women’s Wear Daily in 2002 that Mr. Braunstein became unhinged, his mother said.

“He freaked out,” she said. “He snapped, totally. He acknowledged this to me.”

Mr. Braunstein pleaded guilty in this past summer to menacing an ex-girlfriend. Mr. Braunstein’s father, Alberto Braunstein, told the Sun that his son, from whom he has been estranged from since a fight at least a couple of years ago, is a “mentally troubled” man who “flares up very, very fast.”

Alberto Braunstein, 71, said he and his ex-wife of 25 years pressed for their son to see a therapist when he was in his 20s to address his uncontrollable temper. “We tried to have him go to a shrink,” Mr. Braunstein said. “He went for a few sessions. He played with the shrink.”

Because of Peter Braunstein’s mental state, his father said he is terrified his son could kill himself should police close in on him. “I don’t know under those circumstances what he would do,” Mr. Braunstein said. If his son is caught and prosecuted, “his defense can only be based on insanity,” he said.

The much-publicized case has taken a toll on Peter Braunstein’s parents.

“I am very, very exhausted,” Ms. Braunstein said.

Mr. Braunstein’s father said that despite taking sleeping pills he is unable to sleep or even eat, particularly in the last week. A non-practicing Jew, Alberto Braunstein paid a visit to Saint John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church across the street from his East Side gallery two days ago. He lit three prayer candles, one each for his son, the victim, and Tiko, his 8-year-old Lhasa Apso, which he called his best friend. The dog was put to sleep a few days ago.