Let me see. We have 5000 linked events in which the spate of mass
killings fit nicely in the third standard deviation in terms of a
cause and effect relationship. If I recall correctly, alcohol abuse
will likely also fit nicely into such a scenario except as it takes
much longer and the effect is much weaker. It could well be that
SSRI accelerates the effect.
Another aspect of SSRI's that has not gained any coverage is that
some side effects are persistent long after discontinuance. I am
bringing this little morsel up for those who have been exposed to
these drugs and are then dealing with new apparently unrelated
issues. The general effect became apparent from reports of sexual
issues arising that allowed measurement. Needless to say no-one is
studying any of this.
As an aside, I suggest that Vioxx victims would represent an
excellent population to investigate as to a spectrum of persistent
side effects.
What is badly needed is comparison work with populations from before
these meds showed up ( pre 1988 ) and particularly with soldiers who
certainly faced similar conditions. Vietnam veteran appears to be
the obvious choice.
Prescription Drugs
Often Behind Mass Shootings
It is no secret that
prescription drugs, notably antidepressants, can make psychiatric
patients worse, not better and even precipitate violence. SSRI
antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil are so linked to
violence, they were given the FDA’s highest warning in 2004, a
black box, for the suicidal risks they can create in young adults.
According to published
reports, the gunmen involved in the Columbine High School, Red Lake
reservation, Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech mass
shootings were under the influence of psychiatric drugs or
withdrawing from such drugs. At least 5,000 other news
stories, including school shootings, link psychiatric drugs to
violent crime on the web site SSRI Stories.
Three men in their 70′s and 80′s attack their wives with
hammers while under the influence of psychiatric drugs say news
reports on the site. A 54-year-old respiratory patient with a
breathing tube and an oxygen tank and no previous criminal record
holds up a bank. An enraged man in Australia chases his mailman and
threats to cut his throat . . . for bringing him junk mail. A
58-year-old Amarillo man with no criminal history tries to abduct
three people and an Oklahoma woman accepts a cup of tea from an
elderly nurse she’s just met--and kills her.
“The kind of energy,
rage and insanity seen in a lot of crimes today was not seen before
SSRIs appeared,” said Rosie Meysenburg, who co-founded SSRI
Stories, in an interview shortly before her death this year.
Meysenburg is not the
only one to observe the bizarre, unpredictable and inexplicable
violence that has surfaced since the psychiatric drug craze began 25
years ago with Prozac. Did elderly people commit crimes so frequently
in the past? Did people so frequently kill their families?
During a few weeks in
2009, a Middletown, MD man was accused of killing his wife and three
children, a Milton, MA man was accused of killing his two sisters at
a birthday party, a Santa Clara man was accused of killing his two
children and three other relatives, a Orting, WA man was accused of
killing his five children, a Chicago man was accused of killing his
girlfriend’s sister, father and grandfather and an Alabama man was
accused of killing his mother and grandparents. What?
And there’s another
indication that the high rates of suicide and violence are linked to
prescription drugs--the high suicide rate in the military where
antidepressants are widely given. In just one month, July of
2011, there were 32 suspected suicides, 21 among active duty troops
and 10 among reservists. In one report, 36 percent of the troops who
killed themselves had never even been deployed. That means combat
stress and PTSD were not factors in the self-injurious behavior.
You don’t have to be
a cynic to ask if the reason so many troops are killing themselves
is, at least partially, because they are taking drugs that make them
kill themselves. Nor is it overly cynical to ask if the 20 million
Americans in the general population taking such drugs are behind the
frequent mass shootings and family killings.
Martha Rosenberg is
the author of the acclaimed expose, “Born With a Junk Food
Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health”
(Prometheus Books, 2012).
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