Posted on 03/24/2005 7:09:06 AM PST by Nov3
Report: Accused School Shooter Was On Prozac
WEB EXTRA: Red Lake Coverage.
Mar 24, 2005 6:47 am US/Central Red Lake, Minn. (AP) The teenager accused of killing nine people and then himself on the Red Lake Indian Reservation was apparently struggling with depression.
A cultural coordinator at Red Lake Middle School told the Washington Post that Jeffrey Weise was taking the anti-depressant Prozac and was hospitalized for suicidal tendencies at least once.
A bus driver for a local health center told the paper he once drove Weise 60 miles to a psychiatric ward in Thief River Falls. The boy's grandmother also said he suffered from depression.
Students described Weise as a loner. He apparently posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site, and a computer animation attributed to him shows a person shooting four people, blowing up a police car and committing suicide.
I don't think doctors and pharm. companies know the effects of intereactions of other drugs as well as chemicals we have today that we didn't have 100 years ago.
I think he needed inpatient observation for about 6 weeks after increasing the dose. I don't know if you've been following the SSRIs over the last few years, and if you want to read this whole depressing thread. Please check comment# 73 and my first comment on the linked article there as well as comment# 96 on this thread.
I think they need to screen individuals to see if they're the types who might become homicidal or suicidal.
I don't know if that's the enzyme that should be screened for, other enzymes involved in disposing of excess serotonin, or variants of cytochrome P450 for inactivating the SSRIs, but I'm quite tired of hearing about these tragedies, and then hearing the gun grabbers to boot! It should be quite obvious that for some people with depression, SSRIs can be what puts them over the edge.
This is also true. The SSRI medication is said to be non addictive, but coming off of the medication needs to be done slowly. The body adapts to the excess seretonin by dropping its own production a bit, and when taken off the medication the flood of depressing feelings is not uncommon, and can be devastating to some people. There are people who are helped by these drugs, but the drugs are over prescribed, and are dangerous to prescribe to those who don't need them. Sociopaths are treated with drugs which work against seretonin receptors. It is clear to me, that these drugs decrease inhibitions (thus the Social Dysfunction treatment claims). For alot of people these drugs supress the conscience, and thus we are enabling already disturbed people to do things they most likely wouldn't have done.
< disgust> Thank GOD he was getting professional help! < /disgust> Get a clue
Right its now being shown that the lack of seretonin breakdown is a problem in known murderers:
In a study of convicted male murderers, Markku Linnoila of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, working with colleagues within the federal government and at the University of Helsinki in Finland, have uncovered new data linking the impulsiveness of the murders with chronically low levels of a serotonin breakdown product in cerebrospinal fluid. Men who had committed murder without clear premediation had the lowest levels of the breakdown product, known as 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, or 5-HIAA. In addition, men who had killed more than once had lower levels of 5-HIAA than did one-time murderers. Linnoila's group describes the findings in the July ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY.
Remember Prozac is a Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitor (ie it prevents the body from getting rid of seratonin on purpose). So...are we inducing Sociopathic behavior...??
I remember doing some research into these types of drugs a few years ago. I read websites that were from people suing the company. Some of the information included in these websites was that the first time they did trials on the drug they stopped the trial because people who'd never shown any violent tendencies were telling them they were having violent feelings. I beleive when they resumed the trials they used tranquilizers in those who were showing the violent tendendencies.
Exactly how true any of this is..I don't know, I do know that I am amazed at how many people are on stuff like Prozac, zoloft and others. Prozac does work for some peoplel, it worked very well in a reletive of mine. But I do believe that like any other drug it can cause severe reactions in some people. In the case of these types of drugs one severe reaction seems to be out of control violence.
Hard to tell if that is the case here, but as was mentioned, these school shootings are carried out by young people who have taken these medications. (and who knows what recreational stuff)
Given the premise of your post that too few people in the US are on SSRI antidepressants, it is quite appropriate. Besides the facts are sometimes too hard to grasp for someone who doesn't want to look at them before they do knee jerk posts.
I bow to your obvious superiority. LOL
In this particular topic - yes, I don't believe you have researched squat
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