Time to ban Assault Anti-Depressants

zefflyn

Registered. User.
Gun control can't fix crazy.

Someone went and compiled a huge list of incidents of violence where prescription anti-depressants were in use and indexed them at http://www.ssristories.com/. Of particular note are the sections "School Shootings / Incidents," "Murder-Suicides," "Murders / Murder Attempts," and "Suicides / Suicide Attempts."

How many people would be alive today if those slightly-depressed people weren't put on dangerous psych drugs and released on the populace?

This website is a collection of 4,800+ news stories with the full media article available, mainly criminal in nature, that have appeared in the media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals) or that were part of FDA testimony in either 1991, 2004 or 2006, in which antidepressants are mentioned.

[...]

On December 15, 2010, PLoS Medicine released a study which showed that, in regard to prescription medications and violence, the FDA had received the most reports of violence from the SSRI & SNRI antidepressants (except for Chantix, the smoking cessation drug.) The study listed Prozac as the number 2 drug for violence, and Paxil as number 3. http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=47014

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

I think it's safe to say that children are not normally this violent. So we can either blame their video games, or their prescription drugs. Drugs don't kill people (unless you OD); people on drugs kill people.

Eric Harris age 17 (Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 in Colombine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and injured 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public.

Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.

Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.

Thirteen-year-old Chris Fetters killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.

Twelve-year-old Christopher Pittman murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.

Thirteen-year-old Mathew Miller hung himself in his bedroom closet after taking Zoloft for 6 days.

Fifteen-year-old Jarred Viktor stabbed his grandmother 61 times after 5 days on Paxil.

Fifteen-year-old Kip Kinkel (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept then went to school and opened fire killing 2 classmates and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.

Luke Woodham age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students, wounding six others.

A Pocatello, ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed stand off at his school.

Michael Carneal (Ritalin) a 14-year-old opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded..

Young man in Huntsville, Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.

Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.

TJ Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia opened fire on and wounded six of his class mates.

Rod Mathews, age 14, (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat.

James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two teachers.

Elizabeth Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania

Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) – school shooting in El Cajon, California

Jarred Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), after five days on Paxil he stabbed his grandmother 61 times.

Chris Shanahan, age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman.

Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents as they came home from work using a sledge hammer, hatchet, butcher knife and mechanic’s file, then attacked his younger brothers and sister.

Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have been court-ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications.

Kevin Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his head. Initially it was ruled a suicide, but two years later, the investigation into his death was opened as a possible homicide. The prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and other SSRI antidepressants.

Alex Kim, age 13, hung himself soon after his prescription of Lexapro had been doubled.

Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems. Six days later, after suffering many adverse effects of the drug, she shot herself.

Billy Willkomm, an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student, was prescribed Prozac at the age of 17. His family found him dead of suicide – hanging from a tall ladder at the family’s Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002.

Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her closet. Kara’s parents said “…. the damn doctor wouldn’t take her off it and I asked him to when we went in on the second visit. I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to Paxil…”)

Gareth Christian, Vancouver, age 18, was on Paxil when he committed suicide in 2002, (Gareth’s father could not accept his son’s death and killed himself)

Julie Woodward, age 17, was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her family’s detached garage.

Matthew Miller was 13 saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty and school. The psychiatrist recommended Zoloft for him. Seven days after beginning the Zioloft samples, his mother found him dead… hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet.

Kurt Danysh, age 18 and on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun. He is now behind prison bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill.

Woody ____, age 37, committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft. Shortly before his death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug. He had seen his physician only for insomnia. He had never been depressed, nor did he have any history of any mental illness symptoms.

A ten-year-old boy from Houston shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased.

15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed a fellow middle school student. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.”

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.

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 amounts of Xanax in his system.

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 – then he committed suicide.

14-year-old Asa Coon of Cleveland, shot and wounded four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon was on Trazodone.

16-year-old Jon Romano, taking medication for depression, fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New York high school.
 

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Frightening. I guess we'll hear the retort that these were troubled kids to begin with, hence the prescription, but I just feel we are the medicated society, licit and illicit. My personal statement is to never consider anything other than a drink once in a while, even though I have dealt with depression most of my life.

PS. Unlike many, I have little direct experience with anti-depressants, until I came to this current job, where three people I work/haved worked with take 'em. They act weird, don't perform their jobs well and I can't stand to be around 'em. I'm sorry for 'em but keep wishing they'd quit, either the job or the drugs. It's the way that they're weird which is so disturbing. No violent behavior, though one guy had an episode in the parking lot and ended up unsuccessfully trying to sue my boss for discrimination (HIV positive so they all hate me, went the argument, which was utter BS). He's gone, of the other two, one sleeps at her desk and the other has mastered doing little to nothing and the boss is too much of a softie to can either of 'em. I don't know what their suffering was before, but quality of life attained is not evident....
 
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planegray

Redwood Original
Staff member
chicken/ egg question is always valid with respect to abnormal behavior and psych medications.


Having lived with a bipolar for 10 years, I can tell you that we (including most of the U.S. medical community) really don't know jack shit about mental illness.
 

MysterYvil

Mr. Bad Example
chicken/ egg question is always valid with respect to abnormal behavior and psych medications.


Having lived with a bipolar for 10 years, I can tell you that we (including most of the U.S. medical community) really don't know jack shit about mental illness.
This!

On a related note: I was on a hellbroth of drugs last year, none of them "psych meds," yet they most certainly affected my state of mind.
 

Poxy

Well-known member
Zefflyn, correlation≠causation.

Just because these medications were taken by those people, doesn't mean they were responsible. Think about it: They were given these meds because they were perceived to have a condition. They had a condition which would cause those actions. As Planegray points out, chicken/egg.
 
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xgambit

Post Count +1
looking through that list, i just realized that all of those people owned guns, therefore all gun owners are crazy drugged out people that shoot other people. just basing it on the facts at hand.
 

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Guess we better leave it to the experts, huh? We don't know nothin.' Unsatisfying when human nature is to search for causation.

I think the Scientology crack is a bit over the line, Pox. C'mon......
 
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}Dragon{

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ ︵ ╯(°□° ╯)
Out of that list, I only (while glancing) saw two people out of their teen age years.

I think psych meds, in most cases are over-prescribed to teenagers. (You'll notice the 37 y/o was misprescribed/diagnosed and the 27 y/o was off his meds w/ the exception of xanax.)
 

Poxy

Well-known member
I think the Scientology crack is a bit over the line, Pox. C'mon......

No, I'm serious. Scientology does have a pretty strong anti-medication stance...sometimes to the point of obsession and against logic. I thought it was a reasonable to ask but will withdraw the question.

I do think that we're over-prescribing SSRIS, etc, but still we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I think many people do find relief with them.
 
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planegray

Redwood Original
Staff member
No, I'm serious. Scientology does have a pretty strong anti-medication stance...sometimes to the point of obsession and against logic. I thought it was a reasonable to ask but will withdraw the question.

why would you withdraw the question ?

It's completely relevant to the topic the op posted, and I sure didn't see any malicious intent.
 

mean dad

Well-known member
I'm trying to talk a close friend out of starting a lexapro regimen. Those anti-depressants scare me.
 

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Didn't know that Scientologists were known for that, fwiw....so just a mild c'mon....peace in the hood (for clarification, one of the few things that would really get under my skin would be to be called a Scientologist, but I dunno if others have a similar view of that particular creed)....
 
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Lovedoc

That's COLD, Brrrr
Where your reference names a drug, it's mainly an SSRI, Prozac class. The professional debate over these drugs continues, but the fact is, they are by far the most widely prescribed antidepressants for a number of good reasons. Through the '90's anyway, they were the only option really. The FDA and psych community are well aware of the issues. It's important to remember that the worst usual symptom of depression by far is suicide, not homicide. There is good evedence that SSRI's reduce suicide.
 

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Devil's Advocate retort would be that the suicides might be seen as spectacularly homicidal in their realization....this latest kid did not hurt himself, but I imagine others in the list went with their victims, right?
 

planegray

Redwood Original
Staff member
Didn't know that Scientologists were known for that, fwiw....so just a mild c'mon....peace in the hood (for clarification, one of the few things that would really get under my skin would be to be called a Scientologist, but I dunno if others have a similar view of that particular creed)....


ARE you a scientologist ?
 

BWells

Marin Speed Shop
It’s been said many times that the human brain is the most extraordinary of computing machines. Crediting planegrays comment about us not knowing jack shit about mental illness leads me to think that we should not throw pills at things we know nothing about. And if the above statement is true and the brain is that fantastic we can work it out in our head.

Thanks for the good read.
 
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