Are psychiatric drugs linked to mass murders?

[David S]

It seems that a number of mass murders, including the recent one in Minnesota, involved killers who were taking  psychiatric drugs. A quick Google search came up with the list below. Do you think these drugs may be causing people to commit murder?

Friend Says Minn. Teen (Jeff Weise) Gunman on Prozac
http://portal.wowway.com/news/read.php?id=13059307&ps=1011

Eric Harris, the leader in the Littleton tragedy, was taking the psychiatric drug Luvox at the time of the murders http://www.oralchelation.net/data/Lilly/lilly15.htm


•  Sam Manzie, 15, attacked, raped and strangled to death an 11-year-old boy selling items door to door for the PTA. He was on Paxil.
•  Kip Kinkel, 14, killed his parents and went on a shooting rampage at his Springfield, Ore., high school. He was taking Ritalin and Prozac.
•  Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl one week after he started taking Dexedrine.
•  Columbine High School's Eric Harris was taking Luvox.
•  T.J. Solomon, 15, who attended Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga., was taking Ritalin when he opened fire on his classmates, wounding six.
•  One of the most interesting is a case we can't yet prove. In 1998, 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden opened fire on their classmates in Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark. Young Johnson had been seeing a psychiatrist but, when questioned as to the nature of his medication, if any, his attorney, Val Price, would say only, "That is confidential information, and I don't want to comment on that."
•  The crime America may never recover from, the studied and deliberate drowning of all five of her children by a mother in Texas, was performed under the influence of "anti-depressants."
•  So was the incredible stabbing murder of eight Japanese children in the first and second grades by a man on anti-depressants.
•  As was O.J. Simpson when the double murder many believe he committed occurred. Please understand I'm not reaching out for every verifiable case I can muster so I can stuff this sausage to make it seem convincingly fat. Quite the opposite. I have not found ONE single case of irrational, motivationless killing that did not include some kind of mind-tampering drug.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/7/2/181622.shtml

Paxil Maker Held Liable in Murder/Suicide.
Will $6.4 Million Verdict Open a New Mass Tort?
For the first time, a jury found a pharmaceutical firm liable for deaths caused by a patient taking an antidepressant. A federal jury in Cheyenne, Wyo., ordered SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) to pay $6.4 million to relatives of Donald Schell. Schell, 60, had been taking Paxil for just 48 hours when he shot and killed his wife, his daughter, his granddaughter and himself.
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/Paxil_murder.htm


On May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann walked into a Winnetka, Illinois second grade classroom carrying three pistols and began shooting innocent little children, killing one and wounding five others before killing herself. Subsequent blood tests revealed that at the time of the killings, Dann was on a psychiatric drug of a class clearly shown to cause unexplained hostile and violent behavior.
On September 26, 1988, 19-year-old James Wilson took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school in Greenwood, South Carolina and started shooting schoolchildren, killing two 8-year-old girls and wounding seven other children and two teachers. Wilson had been in and out of the hands of psychiatrists for years and within 8 months of the killings he had been on several psychiatric drugs which can generate violent behavior. Since the age of 14, he had been given psychiatric drugs, including Xanax, Valium, Thorazine and Haldol.
On January 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a school yard full of young children in Stockton, California. During his vicious and unprovoked assault, Purdy killed five school children and wounded 30 others. Purdy then killed himself. During the two years prior to the murders of the Stockton children, Purdy had been on two strong psychiatric drugs of categories known to cause violence.
http://www.wildestcolts.com/mentalhealth/senseless.html

[David S]

Blue Rectangle's point is valid. It could just be that the kid is really mentally ill which causes the violence and is also the reason the kid is getting the drugs.  But when I was a kid ,half a century ago, not many kids were seeing shrinks or getting psychiatric drugs, and school shootings were almost unheard of.

[David S]

These are some of the warnings published at Prozac’s website. It doesn’t specifically mention homicide but it does mention suicide. It also mentions hostility and aggressiveness as things to watch for.
http://www.prozac.com/common_pages/safety_information.jsp?reqNavId=undefined
In clinical studies, antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with depression and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone considering the use of PROZAC or any other antidepressant in a child or adolescent must balance this risk with the clinical need. Patients who are starting therapy should be observed closely. Families and caregivers should discuss with the doctor any observations of worsening depression symptoms, suicidal thinking and behavior, or unusal changes in behavior. PROZAC is approved for use in pediatric patients (children and adolescents) with MDD or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
What should I talk to my doctor or pharmacist about?
•   Patients on antidepressants and their families or caregivers should watch for worsening depression symptoms, unusual changes in behavior and thoughts of suicide, as well as for anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, difficulty sleeping, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, restlessness, or extreme hyperactivity. Call the doctor if you have thoughts of suicide or if any of these symptoms are severe or occur suddenly. Be especially observant at the beginning of treatment or whenever there is a change in dose. You should not stop taking PROZAC abruptly. Talk to your doctor before you stop taking PROZAC.

[David S]

A good question is; why are so many kids having problems which cause them to need a shrink? Certainly I'm no expert on the subject, but my observation is that some kids just aren't having fun in life. For whatever reason some kids just don't fit in with others, maybe they aren't good at sports, or don't have social skills, or aren't attractive. They don't have many friends and they become lonesome and bored. If that continues long enough it leads to depression and maybe anger too. In my opinion that's where many of these shootings start. I really don't know how to fix that though.

[David S]

A good question is; why are so many kids having problems which cause them to need a shrink? Certainly I'm no expert on the subject, but my observation is that some kids just aren't having fun in life. For whatever reason some kids just don't fit in with others, maybe they aren't good at sports, or don't have social skills, or aren't attractive. They don't have many friends and they become lonesome and bored. If that continues long enough it leads to depression and maybe anger too. In my opinion that's where many of these shootings start. I really don't know how to fix that though.

But hasn't it always been like that?

Maybe its just my perception John but it seems like its worse today. I Think kids were more inclined to go out and play in the days before PCs, video games.

[David S]

A good question is; why are so many kids having problems which cause them to need a shrink? Certainly I'm no expert on the subject, but my observation is that some kids just aren't having fun in life. For whatever reason some kids just don't fit in with others, maybe they aren't good at sports, or don't have social skills, or aren't attractive. They don't have many friends and they become lonesome and bored. If that continues long enough it leads to depression and maybe anger too. In my opinion that's where many of these shootings start. I really don't know how to fix that though.

But hasn't it always been like that?

Maybe its just my perception John but it seems like its worse today. I Think kids were more inclined to go out and play in the days before PCs, video games.

Well, I'm an avid gamer - games are fun, and multiplayer is a great way to socialize. I was more asking about people not being accepted. I think one essential problem is that we just overmedicate - we diagnose a problem when it isn't really one worth medicating. It's a negative aspect of capitalism, doctors are willing to prescribe medicine because it's usually the cheapest and quickest way to 'cure' the problem.

I can't argue with aything you said, but I have to raise the question; why are so many kids being sent to the shrink in the first place. From my childhood, I cannot remember ever hearing of a single child who was seeing one. The usual treatment for a difficult child was a trip to the principal's office and possibly a close encounter with a large wooden paddle.