Are antidepressant drugs an accomplice in the Virginia Tech shootings?

[Guest guest]

Originally published April 18 2007

Are antidepressant drugs an accomplice in the Virginia Tech

shootings? (opinion)

by Mike Adams

 

http://www.newstarget.com/z021798.html

 

 

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech

shooter who killed 32 fellow students in a shooting rampage, was

taking antidepressant drugs. This is not the first time a school

shooting rampage has been linked to antidepressants. The infamous

Colombine High shootings took place almost exactly eight years ago,

and the shooters in that rampage were also -- you guessed it --

taking antidepressant drugs.

 

What is it about antidepressant drugs that provokes young men to pick

up pistols, rifles and shotguns, then violently assault their

classmates? Clearly, there's something wrong with the mind of anyone

who engages in such violent acts. Could the drugs be " imbalancing "

their minds, priming them for violence?

 

The answer is a very sobering, " Yes, they could be. " As we reported

in a previous NewsTarget article on Paxil:

 

Researchers from Cardiff University in Britain and the Cochrane

Centre examined data on Paxil -- or its generic form, paroxetine --

from GlaxoSmithKline, legal cases and emails from nearly 1,400

patients who responded to a British TV program on antidepressants.

The researchers found that 60 out of 9,219 people taking Paxil --

0.65 percent -- experienced a " hostility event, " compared to 20 out

of 6,455 patients taking placebo, or 0.31 percent.

 

In that same article, published in September, 2006, I stated, " This

finding helps explain why school shootings are almost always

conducted by children who are taking antidepressants. We also know

that SSRIs cause children to disconnect from reality. When you

combine that with a propensity for violence, you create a dangerous

recipe for school shootings and other adolescent violence. "

 

Sadly, that explanation rings true once again with the Virginia Tech

shooting. Wherever we see school violence, antidepressant drugs seem

to found at the scene of the crime. The correlation is not

coincidence. There is a causal link between the two.

 

 

The links between antidepressants and violence are well documented

A study published in the Public Library of Science Medicine (an open

source medical journal) explored these same links in detail. (See

Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine

and Law, by David Healy, Andrew Herxheimer, David B. Menkes)

 

The authors note that " Some regulators, such as the Canadian

regulators, have also referred to risks of treatment-induced

activation leading to both self-harm and harm to others " and

the " United States labels for all antidepressants as of August 2004

note that 'anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability,

hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor

restlessness), hypomania, and mania have been reported in adult and

pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major

depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both

psychiatric and nonpsychiatric' " .

 

In other words, the link between antidepressants and violence has

been known for years by the very people manufacturing, marketing or

prescribing the drugs. As the author of the study mentioned above

concluded, " The new issues highlighted by these cases need urgent

examination jointly by jurists and psychiatrists in all countries

where antidepressants are widely used. "

 

That was last year, well before this latest shooting. The warning

signs were there, and they've been visible for a long time. Medical

authorities can hardly say they are " shocked " by this violent

behavior. After all, the same pattern of violence among

antidepressant takers has been observed, documented and published in

numerous previous cases.

 

 

How to stop the violence

Following this recent episode of violence, some Americans are

renewing calls for gun control. But I ask, isn't it time we looked at

antidepressants control? Why do we continue to drug up young people

in this country with psychotropic drugs that we know are closely

associated with violent outbursts?

 

Giving young men antidepressant drugs is, in my opinion, just like

building silent timebombs and waiting around for one to suddenly go

off. Chemically assaulting these young, troubled brains with powerful

drugs -- while denying them real mental health solutions based on

nutrition -- is the bread and butter of modern psychiatry, an

industry that in my opinion has sold its soul to drug companies and

now serves primarily as a glorified system of legalized drug dealers

that preys upon children and teenagers.

 

That doesn't mean the doctor or psychiatrist who prescribed the

antidepressants is directly responsible for the violence committed by

Cho Seung Hui, but they may have very well played a key role in

destabilizing the mind of a young man who was on the verge of

insanity. You don't give another shot of whisky to a drunk driver,

and you shouldn't prescribe antidepressants to troubled young men.

Especially when there are weapons lying around.

 

 

(Click the cartoon for the full-sized version.)

How many more Americans will be killed by pharmaceuticals?

FDA-approved prescription drugs kill 100,000 Americans each year.

Sadly, these 32 dead students at Virginia Tech now join the list of

those killed by pharmaecutical side effects. And yet nobody in the

mainstream media seems to be reporting about the drugs.

 

Don't you find it curious that when 100,000+ Americans are killed in

their homes and beds each year, dying from heart attacks and strokes

caused by pharmaceuticals, there's virtually no news coverage, but

when mind-altering drugs cause a student to pick up guns and blow

away 32 classmates, it's suddenly front-page news everywhere? The

reason is because there's violence involved, and violence gets

ratings for news organizations.

 

Another interesting point in all this is that a Korean diplomat

contacted the Bush Administration to offer his condolences. Does this

seem a bit strange to anyone else? The student was an American

citizen, and he had lived in America for many years. In fact, he got

put on antidepressant drugs in America, following the same fraudulent

system of medicine that is uniquely American in the degree of harm it

causes people. If anybody should be picking up the phone and

apologizing, it's the U.S. diplomats who should be apologizing to the

world for exporting death, disease and western medicine. Drug

companies should be apologizing to the families of those who died, as

well as to the family of the shooter. And the doctor or psychiatrist

who prescribed these drugs to Cho Seung should be apologizing to

everybody. Where is the apology from the drug companies who

manufacture these chemicals that kill?

 

The question I'm asking is: Who's really at fault here? Sure, it's

primarily the person who pulled the trigger. But it's also the

companies and FDA regulators who allowed dangerous, violence-inducing

chemicals to be prescribed to the person who pulled the

trigger. " Chemically-induced violence, " I call it. And antidepressant

drugs make it so much easier for the shooter because they make people

feel dissociated from reality. One of the Colombine shooters said it

was all, " like a video game. "

 

Or, as described in shocking detail in the PLoS Medicine study

mentioned above, a 12 year old boy was being drugged with

antidepressants when the following took place. As reported: (emphasis

added)

 

The independent forensic report on the case notes CP as saying that

that night: " something told me to shoot them " . He had initially

reported this to be hallucinations and then said he thought it was

his own thoughts. When asked to specifically describe what the

experience was like, he said it was " like echoes in my head

saying 'kill, kill', like someone shouting in a cave " . According to

the forensic report, " He reported this began happening after he went

to bed…He reported he had never considered harming his grandparents

before and this was unlike anything he had previously experienced. He

reported that the voices were coming from inside his head and they

bothered him so much that he got up. He reported that the voices

continued until he killed his grandparents. He reported that he

couldn't control himself and reported the echoes stopped after he

shot his grandparents. He set fire to the house but could not explain

these actions saying the thoughts just popped up " . He then took a

vehicle and began driving but reported that he had no idea where he

was going and that it all felt like a dream. He recalled asking the

police about his grandparents after he was picked up because he was

not sure if it had really happened or not.

 

 

My heart goes out to those who died... ALL of them

Yes, I mourn the dead. Do not mistake my skeptical thinking with a

lack of compassion for those individuals and families traumatized by

this event. But unlike most tabloid reporters, I don't end my story

with the 32 dead at Virginia Tech. I mourn the 100,000 Americans

killed every year by FDA-approved prescription drugs, and the

millions more killed all around the world by pharmaceuticals,

regardless of whether they were killed in a headline-grabbing act of

extreme violence. And unless we restrict the use of antidepressant

drugs and find a way to help young men achieve genuine mental health

through nutrition, sunlight, and avoidance of toxic chemicals, mark

my words: We will see more antidepressant-induced violence in America.

 

The shootings will not stop until the pills are banned.

 

You can bank on it. The next attempted shooting is likely only days

or weeks away.

 

If we want to end this violence, we must end the chemical warfare

being waged against the minds of our young men and children by the

drug companies.

 

 

Study summary:

Here's the summary of the study, mentioned above, published in PLoS

Medicine:

 

Recent regulatory warnings about adverse behavioural effects of

antidepressants in susceptible individuals have raised the profile of

these issues with clinicians, patients, and the public. We review

available clinical trial data on paroxetine and sertraline and

pharmacovigilance studies of paroxetine and fluoxetine, and outline a

series of medico-legal cases involving antidepressants and violence.

 

Both clinical trial and pharmacovigilance data point to possible

links between these drugs and violent behaviours. The legal cases

outlined returned a variety of verdicts that may in part have stemmed

from different judicial processes. Many jurisdictions appear not to

have considered the possibility that a prescription drug may induce

violence.

 

The association of antidepressant treatment with aggression and

violence reported here calls for more clinical trial and

epidemiological data to be made available and for good clinical

descriptions of the adverse outcomes of treatment. Legal systems are

likely to continue to be faced with cases of violence associated with

the use of psychotropic drugs, and it may fall to the courts to

demand access to currently unavailable data. The problem is

international and calls for an international response.

[Guest guest]

There is a highly elevated incidence of suicide during the first 3 months on

these meds as well.

The normal inhibition appears to be depressed before the mood is " elevated " .

Pharma is killing us.

They are about money - nothing else.

Witness codex alimentarius - the answer to social security.

 

Kirk

 

dippitydodahff <MRSCM4871 wrote:

 

Originally published April 18 2007

Are antidepressant drugs an accomplice in the Virginia Tech

shootings? (opinion)

by Mike Adams

 

http://www.newstarget.com/z021798.html

 

 

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech

shooter who killed 32 fellow students in a shooting rampage, was

taking antidepressant drugs. This is not the first time a school

shooting rampage has been linked to antidepressants. The infamous

Colombine High shootings took place almost exactly eight years ago,

and the shooters in that rampage were also -- you guessed it --

taking antidepressant drugs.

on antidepressants.

The researchers found that 60 out of 9,219 people taking Paxil --

0.65 percent -- experienced a " hostility event, " compared to 20 out

of 6,455 patients taking placebo, or 0.31 percent.

 

In that same article, published in September, 2006, I stated, " This

finding helps explain why school shootings are almost always

conducted by children who are taking antidepressants. We also know

that SSRIs cause children to disconnect from reality. When you

combine that with a propensity for violence, you create a dangerous

recipe for school shootings and other adolescent violence. "

[Guest guest]

Kirk,

 

I couldn't agree with you more. My son was diagnosed 3 years ago with possible

mild bi-polar. Fortunately, I have great support from his " team " to treat him

naturally. He is on amino acids, minerals, omegas, and a great B complex. For

him, this has worked wonders and helped to bring up his serotonin levels

naturally. I always suggest, if possible, to go the natural route first.

 

Dedie

 

Kirk McLoren <kirkmcloren wrote:

There is a highly elevated incidence of suicide during the first 3

months on these meds as well.

The normal inhibition appears to be depressed before the mood is " elevated " .

Pharma is killing us.

They are about money - nothing else.

Witness codex alimentarius - the answer to social security.

 

Kirk