Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

School shooter took mood-altering drug
THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | March 25, 2005 | Joyce Howard Price

Posted on 03/24/2005 10:23:57 PM PST by neverdem


The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

School shooter took mood-altering drug

By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 25, 2005

The teen who went on a deadly shooting rampage at a Minnesota high school Monday was on Prozac, adding to the list of youths involved in similar crimes who were taking antidepressants or other mood-altering medications.


    But medical experts say the role the drugs played in the school shootings is debatable.


    "When you look at the school shooters, some were on Luvox, Prozac, Ritalin, and Paxil. These are mood elevators, but they can push up the psyche and can cause agitation," said Robert Butterworth, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, who specializes in trauma.


    Dr. Robert Findling, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry for University Hospitals of Cleveland, said while some youths "may become more agitated or irritable" while on such drugs, their actions are the result of their illness, not the medication.


    "Association is not the same as causation," he said.


    Jeff Weise, 16, killed nine persons and himself in Red Lake, Minn., making it the second-deadliest school incident in the nation. A cultural coordinator at the school told The Washington Post that he was taking Prozac and had been previously hospitalized for suicidal tendencies.


    The deadliest school shooting occurred in Littleton, Colo. where Eric Harris, 18, who was on Luvox, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 13 persons and themselves at Columbine High School in 1999.


    Other school shooters who took prescription drugs include:


    •Kip Kinkel, an Oregon youth, who in 1998 when he was 15 years old, killed both his parents and then went to his school, where...


(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: adversedrugreactions; bang; banglist; depression; disorders; jeffweise; prozac; redlakereservation; schoolshootings; ssri
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-91 next last
To: durasell

Yea, we are entering the Twilight Zone and the results are just starting to show up. When enough people are negatively affected it will change but we are destroying a genration or two for self gratification. Man is an idiot and can only be saved by religion.


61 posted on 03/25/2005 1:54:40 AM PST by John Lenin (The closer you get to death the more respect you have for life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: John Lenin

You might want to re-think the use of this term: "self gratification."

Everything changes, it always has. The family structure changed dramatically in the early part of the 20th century from multi-generational, extended families to the nuclear family. And it's going to change again, probably back to the multi-generational family for economic reasons.


62 posted on 03/25/2005 1:58:44 AM PST by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: durasell
No, we have entered the Twilight Zone, it's uncharted waters. You don't even need a spouse to have a child, test tube babies. Raising kids with two moms or two dads. They are just avoiding the studies on the negative effects and telling us how wonderful it is. It's not so wonderful for the kids when the grow up and get into their 30's and 40's and figure out what truck they got hit by.
63 posted on 03/25/2005 2:04:35 AM PST by John Lenin (The closer you get to death the more respect you have for life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: John Lenin

I can't predict the future, so I can't comment. For all I know, the trend may swing back to low divorce rates and a traditional nuclear family.


64 posted on 03/25/2005 2:09:16 AM PST by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: PFKEY

I'm interested in all adverse drug reactions. Please, tell your story. I may respond later today.


65 posted on 03/25/2005 2:19:58 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
"Association is not the same as causation," he said.
Ignored daily in America's War On (some) Drugs.
66 posted on 03/25/2005 2:29:33 AM PST by philman_36
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sandy
I'd be interested in knowing the total percentage of students taking psych medications. I mean if it's close to 100% for instance, the fact that a shooter's on medication becomes pretty irrelevant to the cause of the shooting, imo.

Check "Related Articles" for similar articles. If it was 100%, then our Armed Forces would have had no recent recruits for quite a while.

Psychotropic medication use in a national probability sample of children in the child welfare system.

67 posted on 03/25/2005 2:45:54 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Thank you. That's a good link. It says, "Overall, 13.5% of children in child welfare were taking psychotropic medications...a rate between 2 and 3 times that of children treated in the community."


68 posted on 03/25/2005 2:52:14 AM PST by Sandy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The instant I heard of this shooting I thought, 'another drugged up kid.'

Drugs (legal)are involved in right at 100% of these shootings.

Helloooo!


69 posted on 03/25/2005 3:17:28 AM PST by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Red Zone
Well, medications can't do squat for moral problems.

Who can distingush moral problems when they are flipped out on SSRIs

70 posted on 03/25/2005 3:22:42 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: NonValueAdded
You can't institutionalize them; you are forced to mainstream them into the school system.

Bingo

Years ago, these kids would have been separated from the other kids, special schooling.

But no, all must be mainstreamed. Can't destroy their self esteem doncha know.
My wife works in the school system and some of the 'horror' stories....

71 posted on 03/25/2005 3:28:23 AM PST by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
it is beyond dispute that the effects of these drugs on the brain cannot be predicted with any degree of confidence

And your medical quailfications to make such a statement are? Or failing that do you have journal articles that back this up? Or are you just reacting to anectodal evidence?

72 posted on 03/25/2005 3:31:54 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy, and Bush is no conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: from occupied ga

Modern science simply doesn't know enough about how the brain works. I don't need a medical degree to point out that well-known fact; however, I have studied this issue due to my concerns about child abuse, and the myriad of doctors and therapists I have consulted all agree, without exception. However, if you doubt this, feel free to ask any objective authority who has the credentials that you respect.


73 posted on 03/25/2005 3:37:42 AM PST by thoughtomator (Terri Schiavo, murdered by court order. Who's next? Maybe you!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
Wellbutrin, was it?

I was prescribed wellbutrin as a smoking cessation aid.

It's supposed to calm you.
Took it for 2 months. (and no, I had not attempted to stop smoking yet)

It had the opposite effect. I became very irritable. If my wife said 'good morning' I would get pi$$ed.

Stopped taking it.

74 posted on 03/25/2005 3:42:38 AM PST by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: maine-iac7; NonValueAdded
The kids are on these drugs because they are already screwed up in one way or another, not the other way around.

then how come there aren't an equal number of kids that are 'screwed up" but not on drugs doing the shootings?

Because the system manages to catch all the disturbed kids and put them on medication. Noöne slips through the cracks.

75 posted on 03/25/2005 3:57:46 AM PST by Oztrich Boy (Here to help)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: truth_seeker
***For example, what happened to insane asylums?***

If you'll recall during the mid 1970's the liberals arbitrarily decided for all of us that is mean to keep these wacko's locked-up as they "had rights", so most were asylums were closed down.

The remaining nut houses were renamed to something less 'hurtful' and 'mean spirited - like

Circuit Court, the State Legislature and the US Congress
:-)
76 posted on 03/25/2005 4:50:45 AM PST by Condor51 (Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
I have studied this issue due to my concerns about child abuse, and the myriad of doctors and therapists I have consulted all agree, without exception

I just wondered what you based your statement on. Obviously the majority of MDs do NOT agree with you because they keep on prescribing the stuff. It would seem to me that considering the large number of people on these drugs, and the very few creeps who actually go on shooting sprees that you cannot validly postulate a causal relationship. It would seem that the mass murderers have other problems, and that these drugs have been given in an attempt to ameliorate their mental problems. Of course if you want to eliminate school shootings, all you have to do is allow legal concealed carry in the schools thus eliminate self defense free zones.

77 posted on 03/25/2005 6:28:15 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy, and Bush is no conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: from occupied ga
Why don't you ask some. These drugs are universally prescribed in the hope that they might have the intended effects. As the testimony of others on this thread indicates, the reality is often quite different. Where there is not diligent followup, there is very often the situation of people taking drugs that make their conditions worse, not better. Many people continue to take these things despite contraindicative symptoms in the religious belief that they will do what they are intended to do.
78 posted on 03/25/2005 6:32:50 AM PST by thoughtomator (Terri Schiavo, murdered by court order. Who's next? Maybe you!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: durasell
You have kids smoking pot at 9 and 10 years now. And it's not the pot that existed 20 or 30 years ago. This is hybrid stuff.


While I agree that the modern stuff is undoubtedly stronger, it is chemically identical.
79 posted on 03/25/2005 6:52:30 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: durasell
You have kids smoking pot at 9 and 10 years now. And it's not the pot that existed 20 or 30 years ago. This is hybrid stuff.


While I agree that the modern stuff is undoubtedly stronger, it is chemically identical.
80 posted on 03/25/2005 6:52:32 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-91 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson