Thursday, December 6, 2007

Psychiatric Drugs and Mass Shootings

How many more innocent people will be shot and killed by someone gone mad on psychiatric drugs? When hearing that a shooter--like the 19-year-old male who murdered eight people in a Nebraska Mall--has been under psychiatric care, please read between the lines.

Anyone on psych drugs--anti-depressants, tranquilizers, anti-psychotics, or anti-seizure drugs--must be consistently monitored. The effectiveness of these drugs is always hit and miss. And stopping any of these drugs abruptly can create the worst possible scenario.

When we read that someone is under psychiatric care, we often assume they are a nut job. But I have witnessed many people who had successful lives with challenging jobs, only to have a "nervous breakdown" after stopping a med abruptly.

If someone has changed meds or stopped them without proper psychiatric supervision, the psychiatrist, mental hospital and drug companies are responsible for these mass shootings.

Both shooters at Columbine were on anti-depressants. Most of the mass school murders are perpetrated by killers who were drugged, involuntarily. When are we going to make the right people accountable?

No comments: