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Steven Kazmierczak had been taking three drugs prescribed for him by his psychiatrist, the Northern Illinois University gunman's girlfriend told CNN. Jessica Baty said Steven Kazmierczak was irritable but not erratic before his shooting rampage. Jessica Baty said Tuesday that her boyfriend of two years had been taking Xanax, used to treat anxiety, and Ambien, a sleep agent, as well as the antidepressant Prozac. Baty said the psychiatrist prescribed the medications, a fact that made her so "nervous" that she tried to persuade Kazmierczak to stop taking one of the drugs.

Steven P. Kazmierczak stopped taking Prozac before he shot to death five Northern Illinois University students and himself, his girlfriend said Sunday in a remark likely to fuel the debate over the risks and benefits of drug treatment for emotional problems. A funeral on Monday in Cicero, Ill., for Catalina Garcia, 20, who was one of five students killed in a shooting Thursday in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University. Over the years, the antidepressant Prozac and its cousins, including Paxil and Zoloft, have been linked to suicide and violence in hundreds of patients. Tens of millions of people...

Northern Illinois University police said the gunman in Thursday's campus shootings had stopped taking prescribed medications and had begun acting erratically in the days before he walked into a science lecture and opened fire. Police said the suspect identified as 27-year-old former student Stephen Kazmierczak killed five students, wounded at least 15 others and then killed himself. It was reported that a sixth student had died Friday morning, but Coroner Rusty Miller told the media that there was a communication error between his office and the hospital. About The Shooter Police have yet to uncover a motive. Kazmierczak was an...

The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield Oxford University Press, 287 pp., $29.95 Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane Yale University Press, 263 pp., $27.50 Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy New York University Press, 351 pp., $18.95 (paper) 1. During the summer of 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show was graced by a visit from Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy holder and running back extraordinaire of the Miami Dolphins. Williams was there to...

When a dog is looking a little down in the mouth the traditional remedy is to take it for a walk. But the makers of Prozac reckon some dogs are so depressed they need to be medicated to get them through the day. They have now launched a special canine version of Prozac on the pet market which comes in a chewable form and tasty beef flavour.

On her popular blog, Arianna Huffington stopped just short of blaming antidepressant medications for Cho Seung-Hui's lethal rampage at Virginia Tech this week. Anti-pharmaceutical demagogues love to blame drugs for all society's ills. Yet if antidepressants had anything to do with the massacre, it's likelier that it was the premature cessation of medication that led to Cho's violently disturbed state of mind. That's one conclusion that can be drawn from a new analysis on the benefits and risks of antidepressants for children and adolescents published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The analysis found that the risks of...

How to stop the next campus killing There are lessons to be learned from the Virginia Tech massacre, says alexander cockburn Since there undoubtedly will be a next time, what useful counsel on preventative measures can we offer faculties across America?Arm teachers and students. There have been the usual howls from the anti-gun lobby, but it's all hot air. America is not about to dump the Second Amendment giving people the right to bear arms.A better idea would be for appropriately screened teachers and maybe student monitors to carry weapons. This is not as outre as it may sound...

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service. News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against ''rich kids," ''debauchery" and ''deceitful charlatans" on campus. Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior, arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992...

CONFIDENTIAL drug company documents appearing to suggest a link between a popular anti-depressant and suicide and violence have been handed to authorities in the United States, it emerged today. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) received the documents concerning the drug fluoxetine (Prozac) from an anonymous source and has now turned them over to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The economy is stumbling at the end of 2006, setting off alarm bells that growth might not just slow next year but that the nation could tumble into a recession. The recent trend of slower growth is not expected to be reversed any time soon. Home building and the broader real estate market are both already in a recession by most accounts and are expected to stay there well into next year. Manufacturing could soon follow, according to some recent readings. The details See more More on 2007 Stocks: What to expect On balance, prospects look...

Is Putin Being Set Up? by Patrick J. Buchanan Posted Nov 27, 2006 PARIS—Whoever poisoned Alexander Litvinenko had two goals: a long and lingering death for the KGB defector and pointing a finger of accusation for his killing right in the face of Vladimir Putin. Which leads me to believe Putin had nothing to do with it. In an assassination, one must ask: Cui bono? To whose benefit? Who would gain from the poisoning of Litvinenko? Certainly not Putin. Litvinenko's death puts him, the Kremlin and the KGB, now the FSB, under suspicion of having reverted to the terror tactics...

Parents do a lot of guessing on what could be troubling a fussy baby.  If he's crying, he may be hungry or tired. But could he be depressed?  Any parent knows that young children have to be protected from a mind-boggling number of risks, but many will be surprised to learn that infant depression could be one of them.  "Babies can be depressed," said Dr. Jess Shatkin, director of education and training at New York University's Child Study Center. "It's not a terribly common phenomenon. We think maybe one in 40 or so — but it can certainly happen."Although it's...

I looked around when I heard someone crying, and there was Pollyanna bawling her eyes out. That's how depressing was the one-two punch of pessimism in Paul Krugman's and Bob Herbert's New York Times pay-to-peruse columns of today.Just in time for the elections, the pair paint a picture of America so dreary you half-expected the Google logarithm to place Prozac ads on the page. Krugman tries to talk down the economy, while Herbert sees a more deep-seated malaise. Annotated excerpts:Krugman: "Bursting Bubble Blues" "The housing boom became a bubble . . . the question now is how much pain the...

by Mark Finkelstein September 29, 2006 - 06:54 Rejection is painful. Spurned suitors often-if-contradictorily condemn the very object of their affection, while reserving a good measure of bile for their successful rivals. Democrats have suffered a lot unrequited political desire in recent years, and the strain is really starting to show. We all know about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Yesterday I described a new strain, Gas Price Derangement Syndrome, and mentioned an even more insidious disease afflicting many on the left - Controlled Demolition Dementia. Today comes more evidence of the left's painful struggle to deal with its diminished standing and...

Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide rates among the youngest and oldest Americans have steadily declined since the late 1980s, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a finding that contradicts popular conceptions that rates were rising. The study suggests that new antidepressant drugs may not raise the risk of suicide after all, the researchers said, but they acknowledge they are mystified by what might be causing the decline, because it is not affecting people aged 25 to 64. "For 40 years adolescent suicide rates rose," said Dr. Robert McKeown, a professor at the University of South Carolina's school...

Chris Wallace (FOX TV) just stated on the Monday morning news segment of Fox TV (aired in the 7:00 a.m. EST hour) that, not only did Bill Clinton retain his anger at Wallace after the interview was over and the cameras were off (despite Wallace trying to part on friendly terms), Clinton absolutely fumed at his own personal staff, right then and there while still on the Fox TV premises, for getting him into the interview with Wallace where he had earlier lost his head.Wallace said Clinton's blow up at his staff for this mistake was very visible and...

Iranian military commander, General Atalla Salahi, said Friday that "we don't have a need to produce unconventional weapons like chemical weapons. We produced conventional weapons with enough power to defeat the enemy in any situation. We have no doubt that we will defeat the enemy in any area it attack us," he said. During a military march in Tehran, Salahi addressed the war in Lebanon, and said: "We are not telling you to be frightened of us, but to pay attention and learn a lesson from your last defeat." (Dudi Cohen)

FALMOUTH, Ky. - Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy. ADVERTISEMENT Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time." In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages,...