Profile of a School Shooter: Ingredient 12 - The Anti-depressant connection
A little less publicized about mass shootings is the fact that nearly all of these school shooters were on psychiatric medications now known to aggravate violent behaviors. At some point these drugs were prescribed, and often changed somewhere near the shooting (Red Lake, Columbine, New Life Church) but for some reason their medical providers were only treating the symptoms. While the dangers of antidepressants and other mood altering drugs are known, they are still being prescribed without the necessary psychiatric follow-up. Medication is far cheaper than therapy, and easier too. In 2003 doctors were warned not to give most common antidepressants to under 18s, because of fears that the risks outweighed the benefits. In 2004 the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory warning that “anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia [severe restlessness], hypomania [abnormal excitement] and mania [psychosis characterized by exalted feelings,