Shootings in Germany, Alabama Underscore Violent Side Effects of Psychiatric Medications

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Antidepressants, school shootings, health news

(NaturalNews) A 17-year-old former student opened fire near Stuttgart, Germany, killing at least 16 people. The teenager was a former student at a Winnenden school, where he initiated the shooting spree. Three teachers and at least 10 students were killed by his actions.

The media is reporting that Tim Kretschmer, "walked calmly into three classrooms and opened fire, without saying a word." Following the shooting at his school, Tim ran to a psychiatric clinic school and killed an employee there. (Did he have a link to the psychiatric staff members there?)

A day earlier, a man in his mid-30's opened fire in Alabama, killing ten people before he was shot and killed by law enforcement.

It's the medication, not the firearms

In seeing the news reports on these events, the ignorant masses quite predictably leaped to the conclusion that "guns are the problem." Apparently in their minds, these shootings were carried out solely by guns and have nothing whatsoever to do with the people pulling the triggers. But the truth is far more insidious: It is the psychiatric medications that are causing violent shooting sprees in America, Germany and elsewhere.

These dangerous psychiatric medications drastically imbalance brain chemistry, causing teens (and adults) to feel distanced from reality, as if they are walking through a video game. In fact, this was exactly how the Columbine school shooters described their experience of carrying out the infamous shootings in Colorado.

The report that Germany's shooter, Tim Kretschmer, "walked calmly into three classrooms and opened fire, without saying a word" is a strong indication that he was almost certainly suffering the brain-altering side effects of psychiatric medication.

The pharmaceutical companies, of course, incessantly attempt to deny the reality that their drugs cause school shootings. In fact, their psychiatric drugs actually cause the very same things they often claim to treat! Antidepressants, for example, can cause depression, suicidal thoughts and violent behavior. They also directly promote weight gain, obesity and diabetes, and those health conditions can then lead to more depression, requiring more "treatment" with medication.

It's all a gigantic scam. These drug companies are just selling patented chemicals for profit while destroying the lives of human beings in the process. In my view, Big Pharma is responsible for the deaths of all those killed by drug-induced shooting sprees. Read the jaw-dropping collection of quotes (below) from authors on this issue to learn even more.

Not surprisingly, the mainstream media remains virtually silent on this issue, not even mentioning any link between psychiatric drugs and school shootings. The media, you see, is largely funded by drug company advertisements.

A film you must see

A truly remarkable documentary film on the history of psychiatric medication is now available through CCHR (the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights). Watch it here: http://www.cchr.org/#/videos/making-a-killin...

Or see the two-minute trailer here: http://www.fightforkids.org/video/mak_previe...

CCHR is the same non-profit organization that produced Psychiatry - An Industry of Death, which you can watch on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsfH_ap2Wgg

CCHR is the world's leading organization fighting against the psychiatric medication abuse of children. I recently visited CCHR in Los Angeles and toured their shocking museum called Psychiatry - An Industry of Death. This is an absolutely mind-bending museum you simply can't miss seeing. If you're visiting Los Angeles, make plans to go through this museum (admission is free).

You'll find it in the Hollywood district. The street address is: 6616 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90028.

CCHR is the leading organization standing up against psychiatric medicine around the world. They have achieved an amazing number of important accomplishments in exposing the fraud and criminal behavior of the psychiatric industry, and they deserve your support: www.CCHR.org

Listen to the song: S.S.R.Lies

You may also know I'm the writer and singer on the song known as SSRIs - S.S.R.Lies which you can download or listen to here: https://www.naturalnews.com/SSRIs_S_S_R_Lies....

The lyrics are included on the right-hand column of that page.

Authors' Quotes on Antidepressants and School Shootings

Below, you'll find selected quotes from noted authors on the subject of antidepressants and suicide or violent behavior. Feel free to quote these in your own work provided you give proper credit to both the original author quoted here and this NaturalNews page.

This first list of school shootings is from the book, Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill by Kelly Patricia O'Meara:

Illegal mind-altering drugs may elicit the same or similar adverse reactions as many of the newer mind-altering antidepressants, yet this important correlation, beyond a cursory mention, is absent from serious consideration in most of the school shootings. The following list of school shootings is an example of the number of children with a known history of psychiatric counseling and psychiatric drug use: [abbreviated list, get the book to read the full list]

• Kip land "Kip" Kinkle, 15 years old, May 21, 1998, Thurston Middle School, Springfield, Ore. Killed his mother and father and two students; wounded 25 others. Psychiatric counseling and drug use: Prozac.

• Shawn Cooper, 15 years old, April 16, 1999, Notus Junior-Senior High School, Notus, Idaho. Fired two gun shots. No one injured or killed. Psychiatric drugs used: "antidepressants."

• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, 18 and 17 years old, respectively, April 20, 1999, Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo. Twelve students and one teacher killed; 24 others wounded. Shooters commit suicide. Psychiatric drug use: Harris had been prescribed Zoloft and Luvox.

• Thomas "T.J." Solomon, 15 years old, May 20, 1999, Heritage High School, Conyers, Ga. Six wounded. Psychiatric drug use: Prior psychiatric counseling and Ritalin.

• Elizabeth Bush, 14 years old, March 7, 2001, Bishop Neumann High School, Williamsport, Pa. Wounded one student. Psychiatric drug use: "antidepressants."

• Jason Hoffman, 18 years old, March 22, 2001, Granite Hills High School, El Cajon, Ca. Killed one; wounded one. Psychiatric drug use: Celexa and Effexor.

• Cory Baadsgaard, 16 years old, April 15, 2001, Wahluke High School, Mattawa, Wash. Held 23 students and a teacher hostage with a rifle. No injuries or deaths. Psychiatric drug use: Paxil and Effexor.

• John Jason McLaughlin, 15-years old, September 14, 2001, Recori High School, Cold Spring, Minnesota. One killed and 1 wounded.

• Jeff Weise, 16 years old, March 21, 2005, Red Lake High School, Red Indian Reservation, Minn. Killed nine and wounded seven others then committed suicide. Psychiatric drug use: Prozac.

• Michael Carneal, 14 years old, Dec 1, 1997, Heath High School, West Paducah, Ky. Killed three students; wounded five others. Had psychiatric counseling prior to shooting.

• Mitchell Johnson, 13 years old, and Andrew Golden, 11 years old, March 25, 1998, Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Ark. One teacher, four students killed; 11 wounded. Johnson received psychiatric treatment prior to the shooting.

- Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill by Kelly Patricia O'Meara
- Available on Amazon.com

Reports in the media began suggesting that antidepressants might be behind the horrific murders that shook the nation. These stories typically noted that Andrea Yates (Houston bathtub drownings), Kip Kinkel (Jonesboro, Arkansas, shootings), Eric Harris (Columbine school shootings) and Christopher Pittman (South Carolina grandparents murdered) were on or had been on antidepressants. The relationship between violence against others and violence against self is apparent.
- America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We've Been Deceived by Dr. Timothy Scott
- Available on Amazon.com

Hostility and violence are also mentioned in the FDA-approved labels for some antidepressant drugs. The antidepressants as a group have a dangerous potential to produce abnormal behavior that can culminate in both suicide and violence. The SSRI antidepressants are especially liable to produce extremely irrational and sometimes horrendously violent acts.
- The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox by Peter R. Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Despite mountains of evidence, they were avidly denying that antidepressants can cause mayhem, murder, and suicide. From the moment Prozac burst on the scene in 1989, to the start of the FDA hearings on antidepressants in 2004, many stories of antidepressant-induced violence and suicide had been reported in the press. Hundreds more had been sent to the FDA and had even been published in the scientific literature concerning antidepressant-induced "harm to self and others.
- Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications by Peter Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

However, mania is by no means the only way antidepressants can induce violence. The SSRI antidepressants, as well as some other antidepressants such as Wellbutrin and Desyrel (trazodone) cause akathisia. In earlier chapters, I described this drug-induced neurological condition that can become a virtual inner torture of irritation and anguish. Akathisia can drive a person toward bizarre and even violent actions. SSRIs can also cause a loosening of inhibition or self-control, leading to unanticipated acts of violence.
- The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox by Peter R. Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Many doctors seem to believe that antidepressants will reduce the likelihood of a patient attempting or committing suicide. The labels for antidepressants warn about being careful about suicide but they emphasize that this care is required until the antidepressant can take effect. This falsely implies that antidepressants can reduce the danger of suicide. After reviewing the vast literature and after examining the internal records of several antidepressant makers, it is absolutely clear that antidepressants do not reduce the suicide rate.
- The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox by Peter R. Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Andrew Mosholder, the task of investigating the emerging (though it had been around for years) evidence of a link between antidepressants and suicide attempts in children. As he was told to, he did his job and filed his report, but the FDA refused to release it. They also refused to allow him to participate in public hearings on antidepressants that were conducted in February 2004. Why? Our belief is that it is because of his finding that children who take antidepressants are two times more likely to exhibit suicidal behaviors than depressed children who are not given antidepressants.
- The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children by Fred A. Baughman, Jr., M.D. and Craig Hovey
- Available on Amazon.com

Classic papers dating as far back as the 1930s describe the risk with amphetamine antidepressants. For decades pharmaceutical companies and drug proponents adamantly denied the phenomenon, but by the 1970s, when strict limitations were imposed on prescribing amphetamines, their ability to trigger suicide and violence had been firmly established. In the 1980s, a similar phenomenon was recognized with tricyclic antidepressants, the class of drugs used between the fall of amphetamine antidepressants in the 1970s and the rise of serotonin boosters in the 1990s.
- Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants with Safe, Effective Alternatives by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.
- Available on Amazon.com

On July 16, 2005, BMJ(formerly known as the British Medical Journal), in a major review article ("Efficacy of antidepressants in Adults"), summarized the research on the long-term outcome of antidepressants this way: "Antidepressants have not been convincingly shown to affect the long-term outcome of depression or suicide rates." Today antidepressants are increasingly used by Americans who are not severely depressed, and they are being prescribed on a long-term basis. The previously mentioned 2000 ABC News poll reported that 46 percent of antidepressant users had taken them for a year or more.
- Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy by Bruce E. Levine
- Available on Amazon.com

The cases and scientific evidence presented in this book should convincingly demonstrate that antidepressants cause suicide. Given that psychiatric drugs can cause suicide, is there evidence that any of them actually reduce suicide? The answer is no. Particularly in the case of the antidepressants, drug companies and their paid researchers have tried for years to show that these drugs reduce the suicide rate, but no compelling evidence has been forthcoming.
- Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications by Peter Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Given that this conservative diagnostic manual makes clear that antidepressants cause mania and that mania can produce goal-directed criminal acts, anger, violence, depression, and suicide, no physician should doubt that antidepressants cause acts of violence or suicide. Unfortunately, despite clinical experience, scientific data, and a consensus of opinion among experts, many doctors refuse to believe that their medications are sometimes driving patients to crime, violence, and suicide.
- The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox by Peter R. Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Adults whose symptoms worsen while being treated with antidepressants, including an increase in suicidal thinking or behavior, should be evaluated by their health-care professional. The data convinced even the FDA hardliners. Belatedly, the agency issued warnings about suicidal thinking and antidepressants. These cautions came far too late to prevent many terrible tragedies over nearly 2 decades. As difficult as it has been for psychiatrists and FDA officials to contemplate, people taking SSRI-type antidepressants are sometimes preoccupied with thoughts of suicide or homicide.
- Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy by Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D.
- Available on Amazon.com

Adults in Taiwan and Korea, where antidepressants are rarely used, have very low rates of major depression. Adults in America, Canada and France, where antidepressants are commonly prescribed, have much higher rates. Are western people born inherently inferior to Asian people mentally; that is, more prone to develop a mental disease? In 1950, when no antidepressants existed, the suicide rates for children and young people were less than half the rates for those same age groups in 2000 despite dramatic growth in antidepressant use among America's youth.
- America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We've Been Deceived by Dr. Timothy Scott
- Available on Amazon.com

Perhaps the most dangerous misconception is that the seriously depressed can better be prevented from suicide by antidepressants than any other therapeutic technique. Not only is there no such proof, but SSRI antidepressants actually increase suicidal thoughts and behavior for some patients. In 2004, the FDA ordered that antidepressants carry a "black box" warning, the government's strongest warning, alerting consumers to the risk of increased suicidal thoughts and behavior among children and teens taking them.
- Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy by Bruce E. Levine
- Available on Amazon.com

The availability of graduated doses, 5- and 10-milligram pills, would have undermined this advantage over all other antidepressants available at the time. Likewise, had the FDA decided to add a warning on suicide and violence to the label of antidepressants, this would have necessitated closer monitoring of patients, markedly reducing Prozac's unique appeal for primary-care clinicians. Another memo makes clear that dosing problems were brought to Lilly's attention again not long after the drug went on the market.
- Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants with Safe, Effective Alternatives by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.
- Available on Amazon.com

As this book goes to press, a research team led by Kirsch (2008) has once again produced a meta-analysis of the scientific literature demonstrating the ineffectiveness of antidepressants. It is a sad, ironic, and tragic tale: It's impossible to prove that antidepressants actually relieve depression but it's relatively easy to demonstrate that they can worsen depression and cause mania, murder, and suicide. If my colleagues wanted to be scientific about it, they would call them "depressants" rather than antidepressants, and take them off the market.
- Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications by Peter Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Paxil is not substantially different from Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Effexor, Wellbutrin, or any other of the newer antidepressants in its capacity to cause overstimulation and a variety of other dangerous adverse mental reactions. If Paxil causes suicide in adults, so do the other antidepressants. As already described, the FDA has mandated clear warnings that are identical for the drugs. But because it is so short-acting and potent, Paxil probably poses a more frequent and more severe risk than some of the other antidepressants.
- Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications by Peter Breggin
- Available on Amazon.com

Madhukar Trivedi, a clinical psychiatrist who is the director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical school, has been researching the effectiveness of using exercise to augment antidepressants. In 2006 he published a pilot study showing that patients who weren't responding to antidepressants lowered their scores on a common depression test by 10.4 points on a 17-point scale -- a huge drop -- after twelve weeks of exercise. All seventeen patients were deeply depressed and had been taking antidepressants for at least four months.
- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, MD
- Available on Amazon.com

Children using venlafaxine (Effexor) -- a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) -- had a 2.3 times greater risk of suicide attempts compared with no drug treatment at all. Tricyclic antidepressants were also significantly linked with suicide attempts.
- Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 by Bottom Line Health
- Available on Amazon.com

They divided the people into two groups -- those who had received antidepressants and those who had not. They found that children between the ages of six and 18 who were taking antidepressants were 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide and 15 times more likely to die in that attempt than individuals not treated with an antidepressant.
- Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 by Bottom Line Health
- Available on Amazon.com

Express Scripts reported in 2003 that in a five-year period (1998-2002) the use of antidepressants in children increased from 1.6 per 100 to 2.4 per 100 -- an adjusted annual increase of 9.2 percent, with the fastest-growing segment of users being preschoolers (newborns to 5 years old). As a follow up to the FDA's revelations about the adverse effects associated with antidepressants, Express Scripts updated its study, reporting "the prevalence of antidepressant use in children continued to rise through the first half of 2004.
- Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill by Kelly Patricia O'Meara
- Available on Amazon.com

Still, though, there is the matter of the 2004 public hearings, where once again, due to the public outcry, the FDA was forced to revisit the issue of suicidality and SSRIs due to an ever-increasing number of claims that the mind-altering antidepressants (including Prozac) were causing suicidal thoughts and other harmful behaviors. What does Breggin conclude? "Lilly continued to hide the documents and the data at the 2004 FDA hearings on pediatric suicidality caused by antidepressants. At the hearings Tom Laughren of the FDA said that he knew of no data linking SSRIs to suicide or hostility.
- Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills That Kill by Kelly Patricia O'Meara
- Available on Amazon.com

An estimated 500,000 grade-school children are now taking antidepressants. In the teen years, this high rate of depression translates into a tragically high number of suicides and attempted suicides. The teen suicide rate has increased threefold since 1960, making it the third leading cause of death among adolescents.
- The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving Nutritional Program Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., and Jo Robinson
- Available on Amazon.com

But a very well-kept secret, revealed by considering all the research, is that the actual rate of death from suicide is higher in patients who take the new antidepressants than in those who take the older tricyclics. Even more important, twice as many people taking the new antidepressants successfully committed suicide than did the people who took placebos.
- The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving Nutritional Program Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., and Jo Robinson
- Available on Amazon.com

And it is here that even those who continue to believe in the usefulness of antidepressants overwhelmingly fault the industry. The most charitable read it as a case of fragmented decision making and regulatory numbness. Others assert that it was all about maintaining sales. Whatever you believe about motivation, you can be certain that every major SSRI maker fudged when it came to reporting publicly the rate of suicide, suicidal ideation, and violence associated with use of their drug.
- Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies by Greg Critser
- Available on Amazon.com

What's more, for almost all the drugs, except Prozac, there was no evidence from the clinical trials in children that the antidepressants worked any better at relieving depression than a placebo or dummy pill. British authorities moved in late 2003 to try to stop the drugs being prescribed to children. A year later authorities in the U.S. demanded that companies add a "black box" warning to antidepressant labels -- more than a decade after the drugs had first appeared on the market.
- Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
- Available on Amazon.com

According to independent analysis of the clinical trials -- almost all of which have been funded by their manufacturers -- on average the advantages of these antidepressants over placebo or dummy pills are modest at best, yet their side effects can include sexual problems, severe withdrawal, reactions, and an apparent increase in the risk of suicidal behavior among the young. Somewhat ironically, part of the marketing of these new antidepressants has played directly on fears that suicide could result if a young person's depression was left untreated.
- Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
- Available on Amazon.com