Could the proliferation of psychotropic drugs play any part in mass shootings?

[flybeech]

While much of the nation blames the Second Amendment for the mass shootings that are still one of the rarest forms of death, it seems odd that very little attention is payed to the fact that most if not all of the mass shootings involved shooters who were prescribed legal pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs. The TV is full of ads for feel-good pills that contain serious warnings of suicide and violence as a side effect of taking the drugs, but the media seems to remain completely silent on the possibility that the drugs that the shooters all had in their systems could have anything to do with making people do crazy things that are all listed in the warning inserts.

If all the mass shooters of recent memory have had these pharmaceuticals in their system, why is there so little mention of the possibility that psychotropic prescription drugs being prescribed could be a linked with mass shootings?

 

[jsl_pt]

Yep...

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

Well duh...

 

[338Shooter]

The legally prescribed legal drugs can't be part of the problem because they're legal.

 

[808racer]

While much of the nation blames the Second Amendment for the mass shootings that are still one of the rarest forms of death, it seems odd that very little attention is payed to the fact that most if not all of the mass shootings involved shooters who were prescribed legal pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs. The TV is full of ads for feel-good pills that contain serious warnings of suicide and violence as a side effect of taking the drugs, but the media seems to remain completely silent on the possibility that the drugs that the shooters all had in their systems could have anything to do with making people do crazy things that are all listed in the warning inserts.

If all the mass shooters of recent memory have had these pharmaceuticals in their system, why is there so little mention of the possibility that psychotropic prescription drugs being prescribed could be a linked with mass shootings?

Uhhh - that's what John Noveske thought too, just before he was killed. No tin foil here...just sayin'...

 

[HMFIC]

I think that more than anything, the proliferation of psychopathic people plays the critical part in mass shootings.

 

[Mr10mm]

To lazy to look but there is a thread about this couple of weeks ago. Someone had link to a bunch of mass killings and the meds they were on or just stopped taking.

 

[Navy_chief]

Seen this posted on another forum I Did not write it just sharing.


Why is no one looking at the common link to all these straight A kids going crazy? The med's they are on have adverse reactions of violence, rage and delusions, why is nobody reporting on this?

1.Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.” He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.

2.Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.

3.Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.

4.Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.

5.Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa #$%$ stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show #$%$ had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.

6.Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.

7.Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”. He had previously seen a psychiatrist.

8.Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.

9.El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

10.Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.

11.Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

12.Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold’s medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.

13.Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.

14.Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist...

 

[HMFIC]

I would expect psychopathic people to have a history of psychotropic drugs... It doesn't necessarily mean the drugs are a cause of their extreme behavior.

If you ask me, we're pretty lucky that there aren't more nutjobs loose in this world. Global population has doubled in the last 40 years... makes sense that we'd have at least double the amount of freakazoids running around.

 

[Billybob]

User Friendly: This massive index of over 4,800 cases [which contains over 100 categories] is now capable of showing singly the 13 most important categories by clicking on the following links:
Soldier Cases
School Shootings / Incidents
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Murder-Suicides
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Suicides / Suicide Attempts
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Click For Sortable Database of all 4,800+ Media Articles Naming Antidepressants

Antidepressants have been recognized as potential inducers of mania and psychosis since their introduction in the 1950s. Klein and Fink1 described psychosis as an adverse effect of the older tricyclic antidepressant imipramine. Since the introduction of Prozac in December, 1987, there has been a massive increase in the number of people taking antidepressants. Preda and Bowers2 reported that over 200,000 people a year in the U.S. enter a hospital with antidepressant-associated mania and/or psychosis. The subsequent harm from this prescribing can be seen in these 4,800+ stories.

Before the introduction of Prozac in Dec. 1987, less than one percent of the population in the U.S. was diagnosed with bipolar disorder – also known as manic depression. Now, with the widespread prescribing of antidepressants, the percent of the population in the United States that is diagnosed with bipolar disorder (swing from depression to mania or vice versa) has risen to 4.4%3 . This is almost one out of every 23 people in the U.S.


The Physicians' Desk Reference lists the following adverse reactions (side effects) to antidepressants among a host of other physical and neuropsychiatric effects. None of these adverse reactions (side effects) is listed as Rare. They are all listed as either Frequent or as Infrequent:

Manic Reaction (Mania, e.g., Kleptomania, Pyromania, Dipsomania, Nymphomania)
Hypomania (e.g., poor judgment, over spending, impulsivity, etc.)
Abnormal Thinking
Hallucinations
Personality Disorder
Amnesia
Agitation
Psychosis
Abnormal Dreams
Emotional Lability (Or Instability)
Alcohol Abuse and/or Craving
Hostility
Paranoid Reactions
Confusion
Delusions
Sleep Disorders
Akathisia (Severe Inner Restlessness)
Discontinuation (Withdrawal) Syndrome
Impulsivity


http://ssristories.com/