Take Your Medicine!!: Drug-Induced Violence and Other Side Effects

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http://www.cchr.org/doctors/eng/page23.htm

 

Drug-Induced Violence and Other Side Effects

 

Psychiatric Treatment Causing Violence

 

" Little could the public have suspected that the madman of its

nightmares, who kills without warning and for no apparent reason, was

not always driven by an evil within but rather by a popular

medication. " 118

 

— Robert Whitaker, Author, Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine,

and The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, 2002

 

 

 

AUSTRALIA: David Hawkins (above left), a 74-year-old with no prior

history of violence, killed his wife while on an antidepressant. In

2001, a judge ruled that the drug was in part responsible;

 

U.S.: Kip Kinkel, 14, killed 2 and injured 22 after opening fire at

his Springfield, Oregon, high school in 1998. He had undergone

psychological " anger management " classes and was taking psychiatric drugs;

 

U.S.: In 2001, Andrea Yates filled the bathtub and drowned her 5

children, ages 6 months to 7 years. Medical experts argue that the

murderous rage was induced by excessive dosages of certain psychiatric

drugs, causing " involuntary intoxication " ;

 

JAPAN: The same year, Mamoru Takuma (above right), 37, stabbed to

death 8 schoolchildren and injured 15 others in a frenzied knife

attack while under the influence of psychiatric drugs;

 

U.S.: Jeremy Strohmeyer, 18, raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in a

Las Vegas casino bathroom after being prescribed psychotropic drugs.

 

 

 

On June 20, 2001, Texas mother and housewife, Andrea Yates, filled the

bathtub and drowned her five children, ages six months to seven years.

 

For years, Mrs. Yates, 37, had struggled through hospitalizations,

suicide attempts and bouts of depression. However, on March 12, 2002,

the jury rejected her insanity defense and found her guilty of capital

murder.

 

For the legal profession and the media, the story had been told and

the case was closed. For psychiatry, the story is predictable. Mrs.

Yates suffered from a severe mental illness, which was " treatment

resistant " , or she was " denied appropriate and quality mental health

care " .

 

Unsatisfied, CCHR Texas obtained independent medical assessments of

Mrs. Yates' medical records. Science consultant Edward G. Ezrailson,

Ph.D., reported that the cocktail of drugs prescribed to Mrs. Yates

caused involuntary intoxication. The " overdose " of one antidepressant

and " sudden high doses " of another, " worsened her behavior, " he said.

This " led to murder. " 119

 

Dr. Healy warns that antipsychotic drugs temporarily dim psychosis

but, over the long run, make patients more biologically prone to it. A

second paradoxical effect, one that emerged with the more potent

neuroleptics, is a side effect called akathisia [a, without; kathisia,

sitting; an inability to keep still]. This side effect has been linked

to assaultive, violent behavior.120 A 1990 study determined that 50%

of all fights in a psychiatric ward could be tied to akathisia.

Patients described " violent urges to assault anyone near. " 121

 

While the direct relationship between psychoactive drugs and such

violence has been dangerously underestimated by today's society,

history is replete with examples of both the unintended and deliberate

consequences of such drug usage.

 

On June 8, 2001, eight Japanese children were stabbed to death and 15

others injured, in a frenzied knife attack by a man who had taken

excessive doses of psychiatric drugs. In the United States in the last

four years, teenagers who had undergone psychiatric treatment killed

19 people in six separate shooting incidents.

 

A 1998 British report revealed that at least 5% of SSRI patients

suffered " commonly recognized " side effects that include agitation,

anxiety and nervousness. Around 5% of the reported side effects

include aggression, hallucinations, malaise and depersonalization.122

 

In 1995, nine Australian psychiatrists reported that patients had

slashed themselves or become preoccupied with violence while taking

SSRIs. " I didn't want to die, I just felt like tearing my flesh to

pieces, " one patient told the psychiatrists.123

 

Withdrawal Effects

 

In 1996, the National Preferred Medicines Center Inc. in New Zealand,

issued a report on " Acute drug withdrawal " , saying that withdrawal

from psychoactive drugs can cause 1) rebound effects that exacerbate

previous symptoms of a " disease " , and 2) new symptoms unrelated to the

condition that had not been previously experienced by the patient.

Antidepressants can create " agitation, severe depression,

hallucinations, aggressiveness, hypomania [abnormal excitement] and

akathisia. " 124

 

Dr. John Zajecka reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that

the agitation and irritability experienced by patients withdrawing

from one SSRI can cause " aggressiveness and suicidal impulsivity. " 125

 

In Lancet, the British medical journal, Dr. Miki Bloch reported on

patients who became suicidal and homicidal after stopping an

antidepressant, with one man having thoughts of harming " his own

children. " 126

 

While psychiatrists continue to discount the drug-suicide-violence

link as merely " anecdotal " , courts are starting to act where

psychiatric associations will not. On May 25, 2001, an Australian

judge blamed a psychiatric antidepressant for turning a peaceful,

law-abiding man, David Hawkins, into a violent killer. Judge Barry

O'Keefe of the New South Wales Supreme Court said that had Mr. Hawkins

not taken the anti-depressant, " it is overwhelmingly probable that

Mrs. Hawkins would not have been killed.... "

 

In June 2001, $8 million was awarded by a Wyoming jury to the

relatives of a man, Donald Schell, who went on a shooting rampage

after taking an antidepressant. The jury determined that the drug was

80% responsible for inducing the killing spree.127

 

 

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Many medical studies now report evidence of psychiatric drugs causing

persons to become violent or suicidal. Psychiatrists blame violent

crime on the patient's failure to continue his medication, while

knowing that medical studies have shown extreme violence is a

documented side-effect of withdrawal from psychiatric drugs.