SSRI is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
It’s a class of psychiatric drugs commonly used to treat depression, and usually seems to work. But, some people get suicidal and homicidal urges as side effects. Not many, but enough that it’s starting to get talked about.
Interesting. Thnks.
Often, it’s not the drug itself that “causes” the suicide or homicidal urges, but the drugs elevate the mood, the inner psychic energy which allows a depressed person enough motivation to follow thru on feelings he or she was suppressing.(hence two weeks after an anti-depressant is started is a very critical period to watch, especially for suicidal patients!) The drugs also can umask any suppressed schizo affective disease.
A person may be depressed because he or she was suppressing schizophrenic illness which the drug unmasks, hence some schizo’s have their first psychotic breaks when they are treated for what their doctors thought was simple depression. That’s what has gone wrong with the treatments for depression. The attitude is, oh well your family physician can treat you...just take a pill but there is no other careful follow up by qualified psychiatric personnel!
So most times, anti-depressants do what they are intended; the problem is, they strip off the tenuous Dr. Jekyll while revealing the true Mr. Hyde that was always lurking underneath! Depression is often a masking symptom, not necessarily the primary illness!