The killing of 20 children and six adults in Newtown has triggered a search for some way of preventing these kinds of tragedies. The focus has been on gun control, video game violence and a registry of persons diagnosed with “mental illnesses” (quotation marks denote the fact that there is no evidence that the states of being which are called “mental illnesses” are caused by chemical imbalances, genetic dynamics or any other physiological dynamic). Very little has been written or talked about the role of psychotropic drugs in these mass murders. Yet, there is lots of evidence of such a link.
- Many of the mass murderers have been on or withdrawing from antidepressant, mood stabilizing and antipsychotic drugs.
- Psychotropic drugs impair emotional processing. They dull conscience and take away caring. Thus, they sever the thread that keeps humans from committing violent and criminal acts.
- Psychotropic drugs cause people to lose awareness of their behavior and control over their behavior.
- Psychotropic drugs cause akathesia, a state of extreme agitation which is associated with violent acts.
Due to the lack of focus on this demonstrated connection between psychotropic drugs and mass murder, the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (ISEPP) has issued the following Statement calling for an investigation into that link and for routine disclosure of the entire medical and psychological records of the perpetrators of mass murder.
Our purpose in issuing the Statement is to sound an alarm about the dangers of these drugs which have become the primary modality of mental health “treatment” (quotations denote the fact that psychotropic drugs harm rather than help people who are experiencing the states of being which lead them to be diagnosed with “mental illnesses”) in the United States and to challenge the conventional wisdom that, in spite of some “side effects” they have a positive benefit-risk ratio. In fact, since they don’t address the causes of the states of being which lead people to be diagnosed with mental illnesses and, since they do serious damage to people, their risks greatly outweigh their benefits.
ISEPP Statement on the Connection Between Psychotropic Drugs and Mass Murder →
Letter from Psychrights to Vice President Biden →
This is a good letter and I hope it makes *some* impact on raising people’s awareness.
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Dear Al,
I am very grateful for ISEPP’s leadership and careful scrutiny of the concerns surrounding our overemphasis and over-reliance on medications, particularly with regard long-term use and use in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and children.
It is perplexing why known and FDA listed side effects of aggression, suicidality, among many others, are not part of the current national discussion on violence.
I hope ISEPP’S’s, PsychRights and others’ voices find a place this table.
Jen
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The NRA (National Rifle Association) wants national mental health screening (vice background checks). This is outrageous and beyond ironic.
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In the news “White House quadruples to 100,000 the number of signatures required for petitions to get a response from the administration”
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