In all the speculation about what is causing the recent wave of shootings, the one thing they have in common has been largely ignored when it should be receiving urgent attention: the shooters have received psychiatric treatment, which these days almost always means psychiatric drugs with known links to violence:
- International regulatory authorities have issued 22 drug warnings on psychiatric drugs causing hostility, aggression, mania/psychosis, homicidal thoughts and harm to others. These warnings have been issued in the United States, European Union, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
- From 2004 to 2011, over 12,700 reports of violent side effects from psychiatric drugs were reported to the FDA. (Only 1%-10% of side effects are ever reported to the FDA, so the actual number of violent side effects from these drugs could easily be 10 to 100 times higher.)
- A study by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices found that 8 of the top 10 violence-inducing prescription drugs are psychiatric drugs.
- At least 14 school shootings were committed by individuals taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs. (In other school shootings, the shooters’ mental health history was not made public.)
- The New York State Senate recognized the violence-inducing side effects of psychiatric drugs as far back as 2000, citing “a large body of scientific research establishing a connection between violence and suicide and the use of psychotropic drugs.” [Psychotropic drugs = mind-altering psychiatric drugs]
CCHR is calling on U.S. lawmakers to immediately open an investigation into the role of psychiatric drugs in school shootings and similar acts of violence, given that supporting data has to date been ignored by the U.S. government and the mental health agencies.
