MANIA The link between psychiatric drugs... mass murder

[Paladin]

Interesting article. While these murderers may have been disturbed to begin with, the fact that some of the drug companies are paying out millions to suvivors is telling. Of course the Brady's still want to blame our guns.



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=56536

MANIA
The shocking link between psychiatric drugs,
suicide, violence and mass murder

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: July 6, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

From Columbine to Virginia Tech, every time another headline-making mass murderer is discovered to have taken antidepressants or other psychiatric drugs, rumors and speculation abound regarding the possible connection between the medications and the violence.

Now, reports the July 2007 edition of WND's elite monthly Whistleblower magazine, the time for speculation and guessing is over. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable, says Whistleblower's groundbreaking investigative report: Mood-altering psychiatric drugs – taken every day by tens of millions of Americans, including millions of children – actually can push some users over the edge into mania, suicide and horrific violence.

The issue is titled "MANIA: The shocking truth about psychiatric drugs and their link to suicide, violence and mass murder."

To begin with, many of the most notorious mass killers in recent memory have been on, or just coming off, prescription mood-altering drugs. Remember these headline names?

Andrea Yates, in one of the most heartbreaking crimes in modern history, drowned all five of her children – aged 7 years down to 6 months – in a bathtub. Insisting inner voices commanded her to kill her kids, she had become increasingly psychotic over the course of several years.
Yates had been taking the antidepressant Effexor. In November 2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added "homicidal ideation" to the drug's list of "rare adverse events." But "rare" is defined by the FDA as occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. And since, according to an Associated Press report, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled in the U.S. alone in 2005, that means statistically almost 20,000 Americans could experience "homicidal ideation" – that is, murderous thoughts – as a result of taking just this one antidepressant drug.

Columbine mass-killer Eric Harris was taking the widely prescribed antidepressant Luvox when he and fellow student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999, killing 12 students and a teacher and wounding 24 others before turning their guns on themselves.
Dr. Peter Breggin, a top expert on the adverse effects of psychiatric drugs, has analyzed in detail "the clinical and scientific reasons for believing that Eric Harris's violence was caused by prescribed Luvox."

Beyond showing how meds like Luvox can cause "command auditory hallucinations" and many other scary, suicidal and homicidal "rare adverse events," Breggin cites Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals as conceding that 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox developed mania during short-term controlled clinical trials.

"Mania," explains Breggin, "is a psychosis which can produce bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder."


Authorities investigating Cho Seung-Hui, who murdered 32 at Virginia Tech in April, reportedly found "prescription drugs" for the treatment of psychological problems among his possessions. Joseph Aust, Cho's roommate, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch Cho's routine each morning had included taking prescription drugs.
And while the autopsy report says no drugs were found in Cho's bloodstream on the day of the murders, April 16, Breggin says Cho could well "have been tipped over into violent madness weeks or months earlier by a drug like Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft."

Cho's medical records have yet to be released to the public – authorities claiming it's because a criminal investigation is ongoing, while Breggin suspects "maybe they're protecting drug companies," citing the serious problems withdrawal from psychiatric drugs have been known to cause.


Patrick Purdy's 1989 schoolyard shooting rampage in Stockton, Calif., was the catalyst for the legislative frenzy to ban "semiautomatic assault weapons" in California and the nation. The 25-year-old Purdy, who murdered five children and wounded 30, had been on Amitriptyline, an antidepressant, as well as the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.

Kip Kinkel, 15, murdered his parents in 1998 and the next day went to his school, Thurston High in Springfield, Ore., and opened fire on his classmates, killing two and wounding 22 others. He had been prescribed both Prozac and Ritalin.

In 1988, 31-year-old Laurie Dann went on a shooting rampage in a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Ill., killing one child and wounding six. She had been taking the antidepressant Anafranil as well as Lithium, long used to treat mania.

In Paducah, Ky., in late 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal, son of a prominent attorney, traveled to Heath High School and started shooting students in a prayer meeting taking place in the school's lobby, killing three and leaving another paralyzed. Carneal reportedly was on Ritalin.

In 2005, 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise, living on Minnesota's Red Lake Indian Reservation, shot and killed nine people and wounded five others before killing himself. Weise had been taking Prozac.

In another famous case, 47-year-old Joseph T. Wesbecker, just a month after he began taking Prozac, shot 20 workers at Standard Gravure Corp. in Louisville, Ky., killing nine. Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac, later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.
All very interesting, you may be thinking, but what do the drug companies say in their defense?

One of the most widely prescribed antidepressants today is Paxil, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Paxil's known "adverse drug reactions" – according to the drug's own 2001 FDA-approved label -include "mania," "insomnia," "anxiety," "agitation," "confusion," "amnesia," "depression," "paranoid reaction," "psychosis," "hostility," "delirium," "hallucinations," "abnormal thinking," "depersonalization" and "lack of emotion," among others.

With a rap sheet like that, no wonder pharmaceutical companies are nervous about liability lawsuits over the "rare adverse effects" of their medications. In 1998, for example, GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay $6.4 million to Donald Schnell's surviving family members after the 60-year-old man, just two days after taking Paxil, murdered his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a fit of rage.

But reporting the truth about the relationship between psychiatric medications and mass murderers is just the beginning. "MANIA" also reveals clear and compelling evidence that psychiatric drugs hurt children physically – causing shrinkage of their brains, damage to their hearts and other significant effects.

Perhaps even more disconcerting, "MANIA" exposes the federal government's bizarre preoccupation with screening all American school kids to see if they're mentally ill – a process that often leads directly to a prescription for mood-altering drugs for the child who didn't answer the questions properly.

"The problem," said David Kupelian, managing editor of WND and Whistleblower, "is that many Americans don't exactly trust the federal government to determine what constitutes 'mental health.'" Incredibly, as this issue reveals, there is even a government effort to proclaim an infant-and-toddler mental health crisis!

With the numbers of people taking prescription psychiatric medications in the tens of millions and growing every day, this issue will touch virtually every reader in a profound way.

"I think this is one of the most important and frankly mind-boggling editions of Whistleblower we've ever produced," said Kupelian. "The information in it could very well be life-changing – or even life-saving."

[Dougmyers5]

Dang thats depressing!

[seamusTX]

I don't buy the connection between antidepressants and violent and suicidal behavior. It's possible, but not proven, IMO.

People who are mentally ill are treated with drugs. Sometimes the drugs don't work. But mentally ill people can be violent or suicidal without any chemical intervention.

Plaintiffs win lawsuits because the jury bought their story, not because the issue was scientifically proven. That's what happened with silicone breast implants.

It might also be interesting to know who is behind this report. There are various groups that oppose all use of psychotropic drugs and think they are part of some conspiracy.

- Jim

[pbandjelly]

maybe they were nuts beforehand, and THAT'S why they were on "the drugs."

however, if your body (brain) is used to getting something (much like caffeine), and you take that away, well, the brain no likey!

I wonder how much these meds permanently affect the brain's chemistry. IMO, that's akin to someone taking LSD for years. just altering the brain's chemistry in a different way.

[Fosforos]

I don't buy the connection between antidepressants and violent and suicidal behavior. It's possible, but not proven, IMO.

People who are mentally ill are treated with drugs. Sometimes the drugs don't work. But mentally ill people can be violent or suicidal without any chemical intervention.

Plaintiffs win lawsuits because the jury bought their story, not because the issue was scientifically proven. That's what happened with silicone breast implants.

It might also be interesting to know who is behind this report. There are various groups that oppose all use of psychotropic drugs and think they are part of some conspiracy.

- Jim

The only problem I see, is that doctors prescribe these drugs too readily. There is overwhelming evidence that the drugs work, but the end result is a lot better if paired with other treatment, like psychotherapy.
It's quick for a busy primary care doctor to whip out the prescription pad, rather than going to to the root of the problem or making a referral to a psychiatric doctor. And of course patients don't want the stigma of having to see a shrink.
Before these drugs, a lot of mentally ill patients were confined to asylums, and among the few treatments available were tranquillizers and lobotomy. (think "One flew over the cuckoo's nest")

That article sounds very much like propaganda, and I wouldn't be surprised if somehow linked to Scientology.

[Fosforos]

Well I stand corrected, the source most likely does not have anything to do with Scientology.

[seamusTX]

The story in Whistleblower magazine, as presented on the web, lists no author and contains no references. Stories that discuss medical facts or theories usually refer to papers published in scientific journals.

The story quotes Dr. Peter Breggin, http://www.breggin.com/, and no one else. You can review Dr. Breggin's body of work on his web site. Also search Google for his name and make up your own mind.

It's true that general-practice physicians hand out prescriptions for antidepressants like penny candy, and tens of millions of people have taken them. The vast majority of those people did not beome violent.

OTOH, if you gave ice cream cones to a million people, at least one of them would kill someone in the next 24 hours.

- Jim

[MrsFosforos]

One of the connections -- is a lot antidepressant or other psychotrophic drugs work by lowering a person's inhibitions. The idea is that by lowering inhibitions, the person could be MORE receceptive to treatment when provided with conjuntive psychoTHERAPY.

The MAJOR downside (proven in clinical trials) -- is with most of these medications there is also a greater chance with lowered inhibitions, a person WILL ACT on impulsive thoughts they may have otherwise avoided. They may also become even MORE DEPRESSED during the first few weeks of medication - so they would tend to be at a greater risk of suicide or other acts of violence during that time frame.

Its a terrible catch 22. They can be treated effectively but most of the time it takes a good month or so of medications before they begin to really "feel better". Then they "feel better" and don't think they need the medications anymore. That can become a continous cycle of putting their bodies and brains under the tremendous stress to adjust to the medications again. And that's so hard to go through time and time again, most of the them just give up.

AND add to that most of the anti-depressants are given with "trial and error" results. If this one doesn't work, we'll try the next one... another 6 or 8 weeks, if that one doesn't work ... try the next.

No wonder they are crazy.

[HankB]

Funny how the rise in mass murders/school shootings seems to roughly coincide with the increased use of prescribed psychoactive drugs . . .

[srothstein]

You can review Dr. Breggin's body of work on his web site. Also search Google for his name and make up your own mind.

I did not need to do any further research than read the article to make up my mind. As soon as I saw the claim that nearly 20,000 people could be suffering from homicidal ideation due to one drug, I rejected the article.

Whoever wrote the article is lying with numbers. 19 million prescriptions filled is NOT equal to 19 million people taking the drug. A prescription could be for as few as a couple days or up to a month. If we assume that all of the prescriptions were for 30 days and were all refilled for the year, we could divide the number by 12 to get around 1.5 million people taking the drug.

Of course, it could have been 19 million separate prescriptions to different people also, but I doubt it. So, I am forced to the conclusion that someone is deliberately misleading (read lying) the public with the numbers used.

[seamusTX]

Funny how the rise in mass murders/school shootings seems to roughly coincide with the increased use of prescribed psychoactive drugs . . .

It also coincides with the rise in video games, hip-hop, and broadband Internet access.

I just don't consider any theory or assertion proven until I see real evidence.

- Jim

[G.C.Montgomery]

I reject this article largely because I cannot help but notice the article’s author conveniently does the same thing that drives most thinking people mad…The author attempts to assign blame for the actions of these violent criminal actors (VCAs) to someone other than the actors themselves using a convenient interpretations of the evidence. I am not saying these psychotropic medications were not a factor in mass shootings. I am however saying that it may be just as unreasonable to conclude the psychotropic drugs alone were the critical factor in these incidents as it would be to conclude that that these VCA’s would not have harmed anyone had they not had access to firearms.

My older sister happens to be a psychiatrist who specializes in children and adolescents yet, I hold the firm opinion that many of her colleagues are “quacks.� I'll go so far as to say I'm not even sure I respect her opinion. At the same time, I acknowledge that psychotropic medicines are not typically prescribed just for fun. More often than not, the patient has already exhibited psychotic behavior when these drugs are prescribed. Cho Seung-Hui, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and Andrea Yates are cited as examples of killers under the influence of psychotropic drugs. However, the author of this article seemed to ignore the fact that they are also people who exhibited psychotic behavior before psychotropic drugs were ever prescribed.

[HankB]

How many mass school shootings occured before kids were being medicated in today's numbers with Luvox, Prozac, and a host of other prescribed, mood-altering medications?

Prescribed psychoactive medication seems to be more of a common link than hip-hop music, video games, or the Internet . . . and I'm not aware of any other common factor in the shooters that alters brain chemistry. (Though its my understanding that a number of the bad guys already HAD criminal records . . . we USED to lock bad guys up.)

The articles in WND do not constitute scientific proof, though the correlations suggest there's ample cause to study the issue . . . but the vehemence of some of the reactions from the shrink community sure make it look as if they want to avoid the scrutiny.

[seamusTX]

How many mass school shootings occured before kids were being medicated in today's numbers with Luvox, Prozac, and a host of other prescribed, mood-altering medications?

Let's change that to mass murder by minors, and I don't know the answer anyway. We consider high school students age 16 and up children, but they would have been considered adults by the justice system in the past.

I'll point out something else that many of these killers had in common: no father or other male figure, or in some cases a father who was physically present but not acting in a paternal role.

Another societal change, which you suggest, is that "problem children" were thrown out of school years ago. People with psychoses were institutionalized. Now schools try to manage them and keep them in class.

Another thing that has changed are zero-tolerance rules for violence. Decades ago, bullying and taunting led to fist-fights (usually), and then kids backed off and tempers cooled. Now they have no means of defusing tension until it builds into an obsession.

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but semiautomatic firearms were not that common before WW II. The worst a kid could do was shoot six people with a revolver.

As I said in my first response, I think the connection is possible but unproven. It is difficult to prove epidemiological connections when manifestations are rare (sorry if that sounds wonky).

One question that hasn't been asked or answered is why antidepressants don't make some people a little violent or irascible. Tens of millions of people have taken these drugs without reporting such a side-effect.

- Jim

[Mage34]

There are just over 300 million people in the country now, we also have access to much more information today....how can we say that there are more killings now than in the past. If someone were to do the research and you were to do a per capita comparison would there really be any difference?

On the other hand I don't remember hearing stories like this from my grandparents. My Grandmother's response when I ask her about Phycs and mental drugs she would say "Depresed, we would all get depressed, you got over it and went back to work, you didn't need to take a pill or talk to someone to get it fixed."