The relationship between psychiatric drugs and violence has been known for some time. You may be wondering, however, why it is apparently either not known or ignored.
In the news this past week was the sad story about a woman, Yokeia Smith of East St. Louis, accused of killing two of her young children with a shotgun and then hitting two pedestrians with her car. There was apparently no known motive, however the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote on September 1 that, “Smith had recently been prescribed medication to treat depression or some sort of mental illness.”
We see stories like this in the news quite often.
Senseless violence is a side effect of the psychotropic drugs prescribed by doctors and psychiatrists for various symptoms falsely characterized as mental illness. This fact has been documented over and over again, and the information is supposed to be transmitted by doctors to their patients anytime they prescribe such drugs. The patient has a right to this information before consenting to treatment. This is called Informed Consent.
In 2004 the FDA warned that antidepressants could cause anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia, hypomania and mania. Also in 2004 the FDA ordered pharmaceutical companies to add a “black box” warning to all antidepressants because the drugs could cause suicidal thoughts and actions in children and teenagers. The agency also directed the manufacturers to print and distribute medication guides with every antidepressant prescription and to inform patients of the risks. In 2005 a study published in the British Medical Journal determined that adults taking SSRI antidepressants were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients given placebo. In 2007 the FDA officially extended the age group for the black box warning about antidepressants inducing suicide from 18 to 24. There are many more studies and warnings, worldwide, about the danger of psychiatric drugs causing violence.
From the prevalence of cases like Ms. Smith, apparently these warnings are either not told or go unheeded; apparently the police still think that incidents of senseless violence after taking (or withdrawing from) psychiatric drugs have no cause.
As each new incident is reported, we gape in stunned horror and wonder what is happening to our way of life. How can we continue to find ourselves without a solution to the escalating number of acts of random, senseless violence? The reason is that we have been fed all manner of wrong reasons for why these tragedies have taken place, and so they continue.
It is not guns, cars, age, gender or politics that are the common denominator to these horrific events. Psychiatric, mind-altering drugs have been found to be the common factor in an overwhelming number of these acts of random senseless violence.
On the surface, the idea of antidepressants or other psychiatric drugs creating hostility and violence may not make sense. After all, they are supposed to make people calm and quiet. But the reality is that they can and do create such adverse effects. The scientific evidence, only a part of which is presented above, is overwhelming.
Perhaps it is just too incredible to be believed. A thorough review of the facts should dispel that disbelief. What should you do about it? Find out the truth for yourself. Pass this information along. Tell your family, friends, co-workers and associates. Write your local, state and federal representatives. Speak at your school boards and your churches. Have them watch the CCHR documentary DVDs. Write a letter to the editor when stories about senseless violence appear in the media. Volunteer for CCHR projects. Donate money to CCHR so we can continue spreading this word.
Or, you can do nothing and continue to gape in horror every time some mother on antidepressants shoots her children with a shotgun.