There has been a reoccurring theme in all of the mass shootings of the last 20 years. No it is not guns or divorced parents, it is something our society would like to ignore. All of the mass murderers were either actively taking extreme psychotropic drugs or had been previous to their murder. Drugs like Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, Ritalin, Celexa, and Xanax have been found in the systems of these mass murders and suicides.
- One of the students involved in the Columbine high school shooting was on Zoloft.
- A kid, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.
- An 11 year old, along with a 14 year old, both on Ritalin, shot 15 people killing 4 students, 1 teacher, and wounding 10.
- A girl, age 17, hung herself and was on Zoloft.
- An accomplished wrestler and university of Florida student, prescribed Prozac, committed suicide.
- A 15 year old on Paxil for 5 days, stabbed his grandmother 61 times
- A 13 year old hanged himself shorty after his Lexapro prescription had been doubled
- A 10 year old boy from Houston shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased
It certainly is a which came first, chicken or egg kind of situation. Were these kids mentally ill before they took the pills? Or did the pills make their illness worse? There is vast evidence that supports an over-prescribing epidemic in the US. Doctors throwing pills at patients who come in with symptoms that should be treated with non-pill methods. But, right now, the modus operandi is to give pills, try different pills, and then to pursue other methods.
Could Medical Drug Lobbyists have anything to do with this? Doctors are writing more prescriptions than meter maid write tickets, and there are many documented cases of pharmaceutical companies paying for doctors to go to “information meetings” at lavish resorts in exotic locations.. Practically paying for their vacations.
Meanwhile, marijuana is still considered a schedule 1 drug, meaning it has zero recognized medical uses..what a joke.
These drugs do indeed help a lot of people and I am not saying at all that every psychologist is at fault. However, the prescriptions they are writing can definitely play a role in these mass shootings. Some pills may exacerbate the problem, while some pills may have prevented some mass-shootings. The problem is the rate of prescription, where unnatural substances produced in a lab are, far and away, the primary, sometimes only, way we deal with mental problems. Throwing synthetic substances down the throats of our youth, when we can only try to qualify the side-effects (they are too numerous and differentiated to truly understand and predict), has obvious negative results. Combine this with the lack of gun control in much of the US and we have a recipe for disaster. Many factors are involved in these mass shootings, but this one should be solvable. Drug companies spend a lot on lobbying so they pretty much are the FDA, but changes are going to have to be made if this trend continues.
Sources:
2) http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444301704577631591596516110
Expanding your culture, one touch at a time. 
Who ever wrote this article really needs to do more research. #1 “psychologists” are different than psychiatrists… Unless you are in New Mexico or Louisiana, psychologists cannot prescribe, only psychiatrists can. Actually, psychologists are the non-medication dorm of help that this writer is taking about, so understand the difference before you knock the entire profession. Also, psychiatrists make their money by seeing the most people they can see, and prescribing them with medication that could work after what is often hours of assessment on that persons mental health. They also have to take into account the person’s medical history, as well as their family’s medical and mental health history. This happens BEFORE any prescriptions are given otherwise the psychiatrist can be sued and lose their license for mal practice… which basically means that the 10 YEARS Of after high school education (which is a Lot of schooling) was a complete waste because now they cannot practice, they cannot make money helping others, and they probably have either jail time or huge fines to pay if found guilty (but even if they are not found guilty they will most likely not work again if a mal practice suit is opened). So, in determining which came first… It is not that mental illness may not have been involved (however this should not be blamed for the mass shooting either since the majority of the population could/is diagnosed with something from the dsm), generally speaking the mental illness is the reason people get prescribed. Now, some medicines have adverse reactions and not one medicine works for everyone with symptoms of depression for example, also both psychiatrists and psychologists will say that the most effective form of treatment for someone talking medication is ALSO getting therapy (but many Americans like the fast way out, and don’t want to actually take the time to change their lifestyle). Again, the are a HUGE amount of factors that play into things like this, including the lack of psychological training in the police departments when they get calls of threats (since it is not their field of expertise they are unable to accurately assess and as such we as a society need to help bridge the gap between police and mental health professionals). Before this one factor that is not even backed up by any real case studies goes out to people who are looking for anything to blame, i hope this author considers doing more intensive work and re writing. this, including the lack of psychological training in the police departments when they get calls of threats (since it is not their field of expertise they are unable to accurately assess and as such we as a society need to help bridge the gap between police and mental health professionals). Before this one factor that is not even backed up by any real case studies goes out to people who are looking for anything to blame, i hope this author considers doing more intensive work and re writing. been involved (however this should not be blamed for the mass shooting either since the majority of the population could/is diagnosed with something from the dsm), generally speaking the mental illness is the reason people get prescribed. Now, some medicines have adverse reactions and not one medicine works for everyone with symptoms of depression for example, also both psychiatrists and psychologists will say that the most effective form of treatment for someone talking medication is ALSO getting therapy (but many Americans like the fast way out, and don’t want to actually take the time to change their lifestyle). Again, the are a HUGE amount of factors that play into things like this, including the lack of psychological training in the police departments when they get calls of threats (since it is not their field of expertise they are unable to accurately assess and as such we as a society need to help bridge the gap between police and mental health professionals). Before this one factor that is not even backed up by any real case studies goes out to people who are looking for anything to blame, I hope this author considers doing more intensive work and re writing.
My phone auto corrected some of my words, and did some weird copy/paste, thing so I’m sorry about that. But I assure you, the research on this is crucial for determining how our laws are created around this and how our children are affected as well. So for the author, I truly hope you put your thoughts to work and begin helping those of us in this field find all potential factors and possible ways that we as a society can overcome these issues together.
We definitely mixed up psychologist and psychiatrists, and I am aware of the difference between them. Thank you for pointing that out, however we use this site to address areas in which we know societal problems exist (among other entertainment uses). As this is not our job, and we all have jobs or degrees we are trying to obtain, we have not dedicated the necessary time to find a solution to the problem, only to point out that, there is indeed an inefficiency in our government/medical practices that needs attention. I am confused about the police training that you speak of, if you would like to elaborate on that more. I also think you ignore our point that assesses the legal bribery that has begun to infiltrate our doctors, and if you do not think this is a real problem, YOU need to do more research. You act as if the process of prescribing pills is followed strictly to the letter, and I can promise you, this is not true. There is a systematic problem. We don’t claim to know with exactness what that problem is, or what the solution could be, but we draw light to it so that our readers are more aware. Thanks for commenting, Tiffany.