Posted on 08/30/2025 1:40:07 PM PDT by lightman
Following the tragic shooting at a Minnesota Catholic school, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is launching studies to examine whether psychiatric drugs, including SSRIs, may contribute to violent behavior. The shooting, carried out by 23-year-old Robin Westman, who had transitioned to living as a woman, left many questioning the role of mental health, drug treatments, and gender transition medications in acts of violence.
In a manifesto released by Westman, the shooter described struggling with severe depression and suicidal thoughts for years, citing their belief that they had terminal cancer due to vaping.
"I am severely depressed and have been suicidal for years," Westman wrote. "Only recently have I lost all hope and decided to perform my final action against this world. I don't want to kneel down for the injustices of this world. I want to die. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees, constantly in pain."
The shooting marks the second time in two years that a transgender individual has been involved in a school shooting, raising questions about potential links between psychiatric drugs, including those prescribed during gender transitions, and violent actions. When asked by Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade whether the medications used in gender transition might be playing a role in such violence, Kennedy confirmed that studies are already underway.
"We are doing those kind of studies now," Kennedy said. "At NIH, we're launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence. You know, many of them on there have black box warnings that warn of suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation. We can't exclude those as a culprit, and those are the kind of studies that we're doing."
SSRIs, a typical class of drugs prescribed for depression, have long been associated with concerns about their impact on mental health. Medications like Lexapro and Zoloft carry warnings about increased risks of suicidal thoughts, particularly in individuals under the age of 24, as well as dangers of aggression, violence, or dangerous impulses. Previous studies have found that SSRIs and other drugs like Varenicline are "the most strongly and consistently implicated drugs" in violent acts. However, these studies come with limitations, such as the fact that adverse drug events are often reported without establishing direct causality.
“There’s never been a time in America… where people walk into a crowd or a church or a movie theater or a school and just start randomly shooting," Kennedy added, saying that “something changed, and it dramatically changed human behavior.”
Kennedy has launched a full investigation into the medications used by the shooter in Minneapolis, underscoring the need to explore any potential connections between psychiatric drugs and violent actions. His investigation reflects a growing concern about the broader implications of prescribing psychiatric medications, especially in a society where mass shootings and random acts of violence have become increasingly common.
We need MENTAL detectors, not metal detectors.
About time, every one of these loonies look like they are on this kind of drug.
I once worked in a super high stress job, and the GM who I had known for years started taking some kind of SSRI drug.
he totally changed and was making really bad decisions.
I went into his office and told him he needed to knock that s#it off or he was going to get his ass fired.
We need both. Plus Armed guards in schools.
Okay so if you don’t give them drugs what will you do instead?
long overdue
Whatever they did before there were school shootings?
What an ignorant question, given we had no trannie school shootings before the drugs just not giving the drugs is an improvement. Good grief.
Liberals are going to go crazy over this. They will need drugs to cope.
The drugs only mask the pain. Whatever the trauma is, it needs to be discussed, at length. It’s like peeling an onion. So many layers before you get to the real problem, which in this case, I’m going to guess here, is the fallout from his parents divorcing when he was 11.
Kids at that age are confused anyway. Divorce adds to it. I know several people whose parents divorced around that time, and there have been problems ever since.
SSRIs are handed out like candy with no real follow up therapy. They really do mess with your brain.
I think Jr is on the right track. It needs to be looked at.
I voted for this.
Divorce and Online Pornography and Video Games are major factors behind mental health issues, sex and gender dysphoria, etc...
Almost every mass shooter is on psycho-drugs.
“””we had no trannie school shootings before the drugs just not giving the drugs is an improvement. “””””””””
It’s the drugs, Jim. Not the guns.
When I was in high school in the 70’s I don’t recall any kids on Ritalin and all the other drugs they load the kids with now. However, we certainly had easy access to guns. Most homes had a gun cabinet in the house. I had all kinds of guns and ammo in my bedroom. I often had guns in my car so we could go shooting after school.
You really don’t need an invstigation. It says how dangerous they are right on the label.
𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐯𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠.
Why is the author catering to the killer’s delusion and “pronouns”? The MAN is dead. HE is dead. HE is only one person, singular. The Sh#t pi$$es me off royally.
I hope they don’t cast their net too widely.
The people born with bipolar and other problems can’t go without certain drugs that help their individual cases.
Someone on conservative talk radio just said that yesterday-—”A young woman I was dating was fine on her prescription but totally out of control when off them.”
So the trans and other types who shoot at children should be investigated and the drugs revealed (now nearly always kept secret by the media), but don’t ruin the innocent but troubled people’s lives.
Catherine Zeta Jones has the disease. So did Ernest Hemingway and Frank Sinatra. The last two before modern drugs were discovered.
Agreed. That’s why proper diagnosis, therapy, and pharmacological nuance is so vital! SSRI’s given to *bipolar* patients (who are misdiagnosed as classically depressed) leads to mania! Bipolar disorder is treated with anti-convulsants and non-SSRI mood stabilizers.
RFK needs to start by investigating the psychiatric effects of weed. “Miss Robin” worked a cannabis store and bragged about his enjoyment of “firing up a bowl.”
Weed is also heavily tainted with numerous other toxins and needs to be illegal again nationwide. 🙄not saying throw every pothead in jail, but…the fines need to be costly.
It’s destroyed cities, dumb-numbed down countless youth, and accelerated the homelessness crisis in urban areas…and whether by correlation or causation or both…use of fentanyl and harder drugs has multiplied exponentially.
The killer probably did take meds but I haven’t seen proof or even if he was seeing a doc
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.