Army Psychiatrist Kills 12, Wounds 38
An Army psychiatrist about to be shipped overseas allegedly opened fire at the Fort Hood, Texas, Army post Thursday, November 5, 2009 on a rampage that killed 12 people and left 38 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
The psychiatrist was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old, eight-year veteran from Virginia. The shooting occurred at the Soldier Readiness Center where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening.
Hasan may have been treating himself with psychotropic medications. Psychiatrists in general have a history of “self-medication†because of the easy access they have to psychotropic drugs. It is possible that the Major was taking one of these drugs that carry warnings of increased risk of violence and suicide attached to their use; it is important for those investigating this crime to find out if he was taking or withdrawing from any psychiatric drugs, or if he was receiving any other form of psychiatric treatment. For more information about the side effects of psychotropic drugs, click here.
This is not the first such incident of violence or suicide in the U.S. military.
Antidepressants Cause Suicide and Violence in Soldiers
A sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants, according to a June, 2008 report in Time Magazine. The psychiatric drugs prescribed to soldiers are known to have side effects that include violence and suicide.
According to the army, in 2007 17% of combat troops in Afghanistan were taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills. In the past year one-third of marines in combat zones were taking psychiatric drugs. The army confirms that since 2002 the number of suicide attempts has increased six-fold. And more than 128 soldiers killed themselves last year.
Last year the rate of suicide in the military exceeded that of the general population, and was the highest since the Army began tracking it in the 1980s. In May, 2009 a U.S. soldier allegedly killed five other military personnel and wounded three at Camp Liberty, a U.S. base just outside Baghdad. The shooting took place at a stress clinic, where soldiers suffering mental problems can go for treatment or counseling.
On July 22, 2009 the US Senate approved an amendment (SA 1475 page:S7416) proposed by Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) to the 2010 defense authorization bill (S. 1390) that would order an independent study by the National Institute of Mental Health on the potential relationship between suicide or suicide attempts and the use of antidepressants, anti-anxiety and other behavior-modifying prescription drugs.
The use of psychiatric drugs escalates when, and only when, the psychopharmaceutical industry targets new markets to increase profits. Antidepressants are a hoax — a hoax that is killing members of our armed services.
Watch the video documentary The Marketing of Madness – Are We All Insane?; this is the definitive documentary on psychotropic drugs and how the psychiatrists market madness. Here is the story of the high income partnership between psychiatry and drug companies that has created an $80 billion psychotropic drug profit center. Digging deep beneath the corporate veneer, this three-part documentary exposes the truth behind the slick marketing schemes and scientific deceit that conceal a dangerous and often deadly sales campaign.