History Channel has an interview with Eric Harris MOTHER and she said he was on Zoloft but he was not feeling fine. (I don't remember what she said he was feeling but I'm almost sure it had to due with behavior).
So they changed it to Luvox.
Of course this documentary about Columbine must have have disappear.
Where are the parents of these children?

Philip,

Glad you called USA Today. Thanks.

If you know that Dylan Klebold was not on an antidepressant, then would you give us your source? Thanks again.

BTW, Dave Short of Northern California looked at SSRI Stories and found that of the 228 completed murder-suicides, 55 of them were committed by a woman. If you take into account that women are two and one-half times more likely to be on an antidepressant than men [in general] and also that women only commit 5% of all murder-suicides [see http://www.tcfv.org/tcfv-content/new-study-on-murder-suicide-cases/ from the Violence Policy Center], then in general woman should be committing 12 and one-half % of the completed murder suicides. On SSRI Stories they are committing 29% of the completed murder-suicides.

So this shows that a person, either man or woman, is a little over twice as likely to commit a completed murder-suicide if they are on an antidepressant. This is statistically significant.

So Eric Harris was twice as likely to have "rampaged" at Columbine on an antidepressant than if he were not on an antidepressant.

Made a mistake. There were 189 completed murder-suicides on SSRI Stories. 55 were committed by woman. Since woman are 2 and one-half times more likely to be on an antidepressant and only 5% of murder-suicides are committed by woman, then, instead of 12 and one half%, we have 29% of women commiting murder-suicides.
Sorry about the incorrect total number of completed murder-suicides that I just gave in my previous email - the ones that appeared on SSRI Stories. Haven't had my coffee yet.

This is an excellent article about Columbine, that I offer because although it does not directly address the issue of antidepressents, it is very revealing of the mythology surrounding what happened that day and in particular self-interested versions of events put forward by the police.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/17/columbine-massacre-gun-crime-us

Regarding Dylan Klebold, all we can say for sure is that there is NO evidence he was on antidepressants because his toxicology report was never released and his parents refused to talk. This is not at all the same as saying there is evidence of no,/b> drugs, yet this is how the media and many people have chosen to translate it. Just because we don't know does not mean he wasn't on them. Sometime after the shooting at least one classmate said he was on Zoloft and Paxil but she later proved not to be trustworthy as a source as she was demonstrated to have misrepresented other things -- that doesn't mean what she said wasn't true though. We just don't know for sure. Also it is reported that Dylan's mother has been treated for emotional problems for years. It's much more likely that a child of a medicated mother is medicated than one who is a child of an non-medicated mother. And he was in an anger management class -- usually a red flag for "treatment." A comparable translation of NO evidence of risk into evidence of NO risk happens all the time in drug company literature and it's a profound misrepresentation of the truth. So let's remember NO evidence of drugs in Dylan's case is not the same as evidence of NO drugs. His medical records were sealed and never released!

I'm reading Cullen's book right now and Eric Harris was taking meds, but had murder, annihilation and human extinction fantasies before he began to take them. Cullen writes that the head FBI psychologist involved in the case considered Harris a psychopath, and a textbook one at that. I don't know enough about that particular profile, nor do I of know enough about the ill effects of anti-depressants, but to me it sounds like this boy was lost long before his parents sought fit to have him visit a psychiatrist in 1998.

molly_g -- of course that's exactly what Cullen wants you to think although I am not denying that the boy did have serious issues from way back. That doesn't mean his treatment didn't have an effect on the outcome though. Read Kaas's book too and let us know how they compare. Cullen had an agenda and he was pretty inflexible on considering other interpretations. He certainly does not have a profound understanding of how antidepressants affect the trajectory of mental illness.

Sara, his website dated far before his treatment. In fact, his treatment stemmed from an arrest, about which in his journals he was particularly unrepentant. I'm not saying the antidepressants were a good addition to the tiny arsenal of things that 'the system' was using to help Harris, just that Harris's personality and murderous desires were present before any medical treatment.

I also don't see that Cullen has any particular agenda in this book, other than trying to disassociate the assumptions that they were targeting jocks, were goths, were general outcasts.

Of course, this also speaks to people's general misunderstanding of the side effects of psychiatric meds, and a probable lack of questioning when it comes to the entire issue. It would be more an error of omission than actively trying to cover anything up.

A compassionate and wise take on Columbine can be found in Wally Lamb's novel, "The Hour I First Believed."

Klebold was in an anger management class, i.e. a class to tell you that your feelings of rage are invalid and should be hidden and controlled, exactly what he did. It's not the out of control anger that is scary about Columbine, it's the control, the calmness of the planning and the execution, all because these guys were trained by mhp's that feelings are symptoms and to stay out of trouble you must hide them. Perhaps if these guys had been given a way to vent their feelings, or just enough exercise to tire them out, instead of drugs known to exacerbate violent behavior, a restricted amount of physical activity and therapy to tell them they other kids weren't being mean to them, oh, and shoot em up games and automatic rifles instead of skeet shooting or hunting or something.

Still, it doesn't seem like any one person is to blame for this, other than Dylan and Klebold. Their parents seem loving and concerned, the school seemed filled with teachers, staff and students doing the best they could. It's an overall systemic problem which is why these things are sadly on the rise. We're assuming more invasive control and "treatment" is the way to go. When will we question those assumptions?

Sometimes, I believe there are sociopaths and just plain cold-bloodeded murderers that leave us with many questions as to why they killed.

I stand corrected on the release of Dylan Klebold's autopsy. An autopsy report was released which showed no drugs. I know I'm beating a dead horse here and I apologize but I just want to say that even this is not definitive proof that he wasn't on medication. Why is that do you say? Because standard protocol for autopsies is just to test for illegal drugs and alcohol levels. According to my understanding Eric Harris's first autopsy report also showed no drugs but then it came out that he had been rejected from the Marines because he was on antidepressants (pretty ironic in light of the medicating going on in the military now) so a second analysis was done screening for prescription medications. That's when they found the Luvox. I do not believe it's in writing anywhere that they did this second screen for Dylan but maybe they did. I don't know. It's just that these things were not made explicit in the way they should have to prove these things once and for all.

Dear Sara, Beater of Deceased Equines,
I almost laughed aloud when I read your posting. I *just* made a posting about the failure of local docs to test my blood for the benzos I'd *told* them I'd taken about two minutes before reading your posting. So no, it's entirely possible the horse in question is very much alive.
Best wishes,
Sherry

I totally agree that Eric Harris does not appear to have been a very pleasant person from long before he started any treatment. I have never disputed that.

Well, if Eric Harris was a psychopath long before he took the Luvox, then giving him a drug which the Phsycians Desk Reference states can cause mania, psychosis, agitation & hostility was the straw that broke the camel's bag.

Remember people are twice as likely to commit a completed murder-suicide if they are taking an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant.

Read my above stats taken from www.SSRIstories.com

Stephany,

I believe there are situations that lead people to become evil but not that one is born that way. I believe that the bottom line with violence is that it is not a symptom, it is a personal choice, still...If these kids were just born evil, i.e. sociopath (perfect example of psych label as value judgment), then how do you explain the increase in these sorts of incidents since the 70's.

Odd, the more common psychotherapy including drugs have become in treating kids, the more violent and troubled kids have become. Sort of like the more popular marriage counseling has become, the higher the divorce rate.

To be fair, it could be argued the opposite way that as kids become more violent and marriages less stable the need for psychological services increases, but at the very least these services don't seem to be helping.

wow. the level of thoughtful and knowledgeable discussion in these comments is impressive. i have nothing to say, except that it is very promising to know so many people can disagree about various things in a highly emotional topic in a civil manner without throwing a bunch of names and accusations at each other personally.