The point has been made before that guns are not nearly as accessible now as they were in the past, so it's not lack of gun control laws causing these sprees. People, including teens have always presumably suffered from emotional distress that could today be labeled mental illness, and it wasn't until the advent of wide scale psych drugging that these murder sprees became common place, and virtually all of the murder sprees have been committed by people under the influence of these drugs...if Cho's toxicology report had shown he was not on psych drugs, it would have been released.

So, think about it. We are forcing people to become potentially homicidal manics by giving them these drugs, and putting the rest of society at risk.

People react badly to antidepressants for the same reasons people react badly to alcohol, marijuana, or any other anti-anxiety drug, because the drugs initially erase anxiety and then cause discomfort, so the angry boy that might storm off to his room and pout like a normal adolescent, deprieved of anxiety and fear, takes a gun to the mall. Of course, that's just the obvious reason for problems but I believe ssri's have a higher violence/suicide rate than alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc.

Dear Philip,

“It's not possible to say what effect his care and the anti-depressants may have had on his behavior, good or bad, and I am surely not blaming them for the shooting. But it is one of those things you've got to wonder about, too, given the number of crazed shootings my teen males where they've been on anti-depressants that have occurred in the last decade or so. Isn't it precisely this sort of thing that mental health care and anti-depressants are supposed to be insulating us from?” --- Philip Dawdy

I read your statements with interest but I also question you’re correlation and intended direction. Without offending you or your readership I also note there’s a correlation between many of these shooters and their being Christians. Then again there is the 911 mass murder; the murderers were Muslim. Least we also not forget the Crusades and its butchery and atrocities and other murders in the name of religion.

Utilizing your own words and changing where appropriate; it’s not possible to say what effect their care and religion may have had on their behavior, good, or bad, and I am surely not blaming them for these atrocities. But it is one of those things you’ve got wonder about, too, given the number of crazed atrocities by teen males where they’ve been on religion that have occurred in the past centuries or so.

I also wonder if there is a correlation between recent events and these individuals being desensitized to living things by playing this shoot’em up video games “But it is one of those things you've got to wonder about, too, given the number of crazed shootings my teen males…”

How’s about a “copycat” correlation as an underlying theme in these cases or that many appear to be underachievers?

I’m sure others can also think of other correlations to justify similar type thinking.

By the way, here’s a link to mass murderers:

http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/murder1.html

Of interest to me was the fact there is little to no mention of antidepressants or psychotropic medications on the website. I guess it boils down to what kind of spin one wants to put on the subject matter.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

I wrote a (weak) comparison of psychiatry and domestic abuse . My thoughts are

"Emotional abuse is usually more psychologically damaging than physical abuse." People/schools/social system now drugging their children to behave properly, do not understand it is emotional abuse to call/label a child mentally ill, and then proceed to med/drug them for their diseased minds. Those in authority have been conned into the medical model of chemical imbalances, that in reality do not exist. The consequences of drugging children, and as these children grow up, may be the critical mass needed to radically change society views of psychiatry.

I want to say one thing here. It isn't just "some people" who react badly when they are put on Ritalin and Zoloft at the age of 5. Every single child who is started on a regimen like this at that age is going to be damaged for life no matter what their circumstances are and no matter what their ability to metabolize or whatever is. This is just shocking and I'm just agog that there is not a rush to arms to stop this from destroying lives.

Hey Herb,

"Without offending you or your readership I also note there’s a correlation between many of these shooters and their being Christians. Then again there is the 911 mass murder; the murderers were Muslim. Least we also not forget the Crusades..."

I think it's difficult to compare an historical event like the Crusades with a modern day shooting, simply because we'd be judging the historical event outside its historical context. Also, values have changed (we'd like to think). I'm also intrigued by the fact that 9/11 was orchestrated, whereas, by and large, mall and school shootings are solo affairs (Columbine is the only exception that I can bring to mind).

I think the upshot is that there is a common thread. That nobody appears interested in investigating whether it is more than mere coincidence is the most unnerving thing of all. We already know that SSRIs, for one, give rise to heightened risk of suicidality and aggression. I don't think that it's a athletic intellectual bound to hypothesize that they play a part in these mass homicides.

Matt

Of course, there have always been murders & murder-suicides. What is astounding is the tremendous increase in their numbers in the last 15 to 20 yeeas since the introduction of Prozac & SSRIs.

The fact that one out of seven people are taking or have taken at one time or another these SSRIs is a real tragedy. The SSRIs have listed as side-effects both hostility & mania/psychosis. Of course, people go insane on their own without any chemical help but to give so many people a drug where it can exacerbate the condition of "insanity" is really a National Tragedy - in fact a Global Tragedy. Why risk giving so many a case of 'insanity' with the SSRIs when the benefits have yet to be assessed. Even suicide rates among youth decreased in 2005 [according to the CDC] once the black box warning began to take effect.

The people in this country need to look again at the side-effect profile for SSRIs and SNRIs. People need to use common sense. If a drug can cause mania, psychosis, hostility, agitation and homicidal ideation, then people should not be on these drugs.