Sanjay Gupta and Tom Ridge warn about psychiatric drugs in mass murders

							Sanjay Gupta and Tom Ridge warn about
psychiatric drugs in mass murders
Peter Breggin
Natural News
Jan 14, 2013




For the first time ever, and for a brief moment in time, two knowledgeable and highly credentialed
public figures have commented on the fact that psychiatric medications cause violence and must be
considered suspect in the case of the Newtown shooter. But then, as if it never happened, and as if
psychiatric drugs could not possibly be implicated in violence, the issue was dropped by the media.
Fortunately I happened to be watching television on both CNN and Fox Cable News shortly after the
Newton tragedy and I have put the TV clips onto YouTube.
The most striking commentary came from Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and famous chief medical
correspondent on CNN. On December 18, 2012 at approximately 5:25 p.m. on CNN, he offered the
following remarks:
We still don’t know much about the shooter who lived in this home. But there is something else to
consider: What medications if any he was on? I’m specifically talking about antidepressants. If you
look at the studies of other shootings like this that have happened, medications like this were a
common factor. Now I want to be clear I’m not saying that antidepressants can’t be effective. But
people seem to agree that there is a vulnerable time. When someone starts these medications and
when someone stops could lead to increased impulsivity and decreased judgment, and making
someone out of touch. None of this is an excuse and it’s never just one thing. None of these
behaviors will fully predict or explain why. But soon again there will be hindsight that might just
help prevent another tragedy. It’s worth pointing out over a seven-year period there were 11,000
episodes of violence related to drug side effects. If there was a death involved, often it was the
individual of himself or herself, a suicide.
Gupta doesn’t say where he got the figure of 11,000 drug-
induced cases of violence. However, that exact unconfirmed
estimate has circulated on the Internet in regard to violence
reports to the FDA.
There is very convincing evidence of violence induced by
psychiatric drugs in a scientific review of all reports of
violence and homicidal ideation made to the FDA over a 69
month period. Less extreme behaviors, such as “Aggression,
Belligerence and Hostility,” were excluded. Among 454
prescription drugs, 31 drugs had a disproportional rate of
reported violence or homicidal threats for a total of 1527
reports. Two-thirds of drugs had no reports of violence. The
drugs that most clearly cause violence included varenicline
(Chantix, a smoking cessation aid), 11 antidepressant drugs,
3 drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and 5 hypnotic/sedatives (sleep aids and
tranquilizers). Thus, all but one of the top offenders were psychiatric drugs. Antidepressants as a group
were 8.4 times more likely than other prescription drugs to be associated with violence. This study
should end the controversy. Psychiatric drugs do cause violence. As the researchers concluded:
Acts of violence toward others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a
relatively small number of drugs.
On Sunday December 16, 2012 on the Fox News Channel, former Secretary of Homeland Security
Tom Ridge was interviewed by Shannon Bream. Ridge was also on the Virginia Tech Review Panel.
His roles as Homeland Security boss and Virginia Tech Review Panel member put him into a
knowledgeable position. In discussing flawed efforts to intervene in the lives of potentially violent
youth, Ridge observed:
Or we put them on severe medications. One of the students in the Columbine shooting was on
severe medication and apparently there’s analysis that it probably even contributed to his destructive
aggressive behavior.
Combined with Sanjay Gupta’s remarks, these observations by former Secretary of Homeland Defense
Tom Ridge should elevate psychiatric drug-induced violence to a new level in public discourse.
Ridge’s characterization of the medication prescribed to Eric Harris as “severe” was incorrect. Harris
was prescribed routine antidepressant treatment. As a medical expert in cases surrounding Eric Harris
                                             and the Columbine shootings, I obtained the drug
                                             company’s official report to the FDA on March 17, 1999
                                             confirming that one of the two shooters (Harris) had a
                                             “therapeutic blood level” of the antidepressant Luvox
                                             (fluvoxamine) in his system. Luvox is similar to other
                                             well-known antidepressants, including Prozac
                                             (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline) in
                                             its effects.
                                              As a medical expert, I also had access to medical records
                                              and can confirm from these unpublished documents that
                                              Eric Harris was taking Luvox regularly for one year
                                              leading up to the shootings. The dose was increased 200
                                              mg per day on February 9, 2009, two and one-half months
                                              prior to the April 20th assaults. He saw his doctor and his
prescription was renewed on March 13, 2009. At that time, the
medical record described him as suffering from medication-
induced tremors, indicating a degree of toxicity.
I first began writing about the risks of violence associated with
antidepressants in the early 1990s in Talking Back to Prozac
(coauthored by Ginger Breggin). I specifically addressed Eric
Harris’ use of Luvox in my book, Reclaiming Our Children: A
Healing Solution for a Nation in Crisis (2000). I also about
Eric Harris and Luvox-induced violence in a peer-reviewed
scientific article titled “Fluvoxamine as a cause of stimulation,
mania and aggression with a critical analysis of the FDA-
approved label” (2001).
With the exception of the disclosure of Eric Harris’ toxicology
report, it has been very difficult to obtain exact information
about the psychiatric drug exposure of previous mass murders.
For example, James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado shooter was in treatment with psychiatrist Lynne
Fenton in the months before he assaulted people in a movie theater. He mailed a box of materials to her
shortly before committing the violence. A court hearing recently revealed that four prescription bottles
had been removed from his home. Yet to this day information has been withheld about what psychiatric
medications he was almost surely taking.
Similarly, there are unconfirmed reports that Newtown mass murderer Adam Lanza was taking
psychiatric drugs. According to the Washington Post, he was, “A really rambunctious kid, as one
former neighbor in Newtown, Conn., recalled him, adding that he was on medication.” Yet no
information has been released concerning his medication use.
Psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants, stimulants and tranquilizing sedatives, can cause violence.
It is imperative to find out what, if any, psychiatric drugs were being taken by twenty-year old Adam
Lanza in the Newtown elementary school massacre.
Peter R. Breggin, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York, and the author of
                                                                more than forty scientific articles and
                                                                twenty books, two of which are very
                                                                relevant to current events in regard to
                                                                medication-induced violence.
                                                                In Medication Madness (2008) Dr.
                                                                Breggin examines fifty cases of
                                                                medication-induced violence,
                                                                mayhem and suicide. His latest book
                                                                is Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A
                                                                Guidebook for Prescribers,
                                                                Therapists, Patients and Their
                                                                Families. It presents reasons to
                                                                withdraw from psychiatric drugs and
                                                                describe a safe and effective patient-
                                                                centered approach. Dr. Breggin’s
                                                                website is www.breggin.com
About the author:
Peter R. Breggin, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York. Dr. Breggin criticizes
contemporary psychiatric reliance on diagnoses and drugs, and promotes empathic therapeutic
relationships. He has been called “the Conscience of Psychiatry.” See his website at www.Breggin.com
References added by Infowars
Tom Ridge on Columbine Shooter – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpt7M8UnOFg
SANJAY GUPTA MD – Inside Violent Minds; Parenting a Troubled Child –
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1212/22/hcsg.01.html
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