{"id":26331,"date":"2014-10-24T16:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T20:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/blog\/?p=26331"},"modified":"2014-10-24T16:54:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T03:34:54","slug":"psychotropic-drugs-responsible-mass-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/psychotropic-drugs-responsible-mass-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Are SSRI Anti-Depresants Responsible for Mass Shootings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat makes Iago evil? Some people ask. I never ask.\u201d – Joan Didion, Play It as It Lays<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s a theory floating around the Internet that psychotropic drugs are linked to individuals who perpetrate mass killings, shootings and commit suicide. While there’s certainly evidence to suggest that many of the perpetrators of those aforementioned acts were or had taken mood-altering medication, the underlying implication is that these drugs are a causal force in that individual’s homicidal or suicidal actions.<\/p>\n

The latest example that keeps surfacing is a 2013 article written by Dan Roberts of AmmoLand, provocatively titled, “Nearly Every Mass Shooting in the Last 20 Years Shares One Thing in Common, & It’s NOT Weapons<\/a>,” which claims that “credible scientific studies” and “internal documents from certain pharmaceutical companies” show that “SSRI drugs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors)” have “well known, but unreported side effects, including but not limited to suicide an other violent behavior.”<\/p>\n

\"(Photo:<\/a>

Increase in the use of drugs from 2001 to 2010 (Photo: Wall Street Journal)<\/p><\/div>\n

While there may be some validity to that statement when it comes to those drugs in isolated cases, the considered argument\u00a0that these drugs are responsible for pushing a larger population at risk of violent behavior over the edge into acting on malicious thoughts and ideations is tenuous, in my opinion. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a physician or mental health professional or clinical researcher, so one could safely argue that discussing this subject is beyond my area of expertise. That said, there are some facts I think one needs to consider before one makes a judgment on the matter.<\/p>\n

Mainly, one needs to examine trends in the usage of psychotropic drugs, specifically if those trends correspond to relative increases or decreases in crime rates, suicide rates, and instances of mass murder.<\/p>\n

According to a 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, the use of psychiatric medications among adults grew 22 percent from 2001 to 2010 to the point where in 2010 approximately one in five adults took at least one psychiatric drug, e.g. antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety medications. Meanwhile, over the same period of time, all crime — property crime, violent crime and the homicide rate, including the gun-related homicide rate — declined<\/a>. The suicide rate from 2001 to 2012 rose slightly from 10.4 per 100,000 people per year in 2001 to 12.5 per 100,000 per year in 2012, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention<\/a>. Finally, as it relates to mass shootings which is arguably the category that grabs most of the headlines, there has not been a sstatistically significant increase<\/a> from 2001 to 2010.<\/p>\n

\"Crime<\/a>

Crime Rates in the U.S. It was sourced form wikipedia, but for more extensive numbers check out the FBI stats.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

To quote<\/a> James Alan Fox, an expert on mass killings and the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law & Public Policy at Northern University:<\/p>\n

Over the past three decades, there has been an average of 20 mass shootings a year in the United States, each with at least four victims killed by gunfire. Occasionally, and mostly by sheer coincidence, several episodes have been clustered closely in time. Over all, however, there has not been an upward trajectory. To the contrary, the real growth has been in the style and pervasiveness of news-media coverage, thanks in large part to technological advances in reporting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To recap, usage of psychotropic drugs has become more common over the past decade, yet gun-related crime has decreased and there’s been no upward trajectory in mass shootings. Suicides, however, have increased.<\/p>\n

Given these trends, I’d argue that if these drugs were the trigger that some claim them to be we’d ultimately see a uniform rise in all three categories with a positive correlation that reflects the jump in the usage of these drugs (22 percent rise). Yet, that is not what we see. To state the obvious in this case, correlation does not equal causation. Yes, many murderers, mass shooters and suicide victims have been on these drugs just prior to or at the time they committed the act, but that doesn’t mean that the drugs precipitated the violent behavior. \u00a0Not to say that it didn’t in some cases or that meds can’t have this effect, but by and large there isn’t enough evidence to indict psychotropic drugs as a consistent\u00a0catalyst\u00a0for homicidal and suicidal actions — again, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that there is a danger in publicly stigmatizing the millions and millions of people\u00a0who take mood-altering medication. \u00a0It should be rather obvious. \u00a0See, if we condemn them all as defectives, suggesting they’re one dose away from killing themselves or others due to their mental struggles, it opens the door for feckless politicians\u00a0to enact laws that would strip away the Second Amendment rights of any and all persons who take medication which would be a devastating overreaction. \u00a0Sadly, I fear that this line of reasoning\u00a0is beginning to rear its head in New York state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the list that Roberts references in his article. I can’t vouch for the veracity of any of the information on the list. But I figured I’d reference it for your convenience:<\/p>\n