Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. makes the drug to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court claims Solvay failed to warn Harris' doctor about side effects. "Such drugs caused Eric Harris to become manic and psychotic," the lawsuit states. Solvay's Web site warns that the drug may impair judgment, thinking or motor skills.
The American Psychiatric Association defended Luvox in 1999, saying a decade of research found little relationship between the use of antidepressants and destructive behavior. Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 people before taking their own lives on April 20, 1999. The plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of $75,000 each. Victims' families have also filed lawsuits against the sheriff's department, school officials and three men who worked at a gun show where the gunmen got some of their weapons. Some families have reached settlements with the gunmen's parents and people who helped provide the weapons.
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
On April 29 the Washington Post confirmed that Eric Harris, the leader in the Littleton tragedy, was taking the psychiatric drug Luvox at the time of the murders. On April 30 the same newspaper published a story quoting expert claims that Luvox is safe and has no association with causing violence. In fact, Luvox and closely related drugs commonly produce manic psychoses, aggression, and other behavioral abnormalities in children and young people.
Luvox is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) that is approved for children and youth (up to age 17) for use in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. However, doctors often give it for depression, since it is in the same SSRI class as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil.
According to the manufacturer, Solvay, 4% of children and youth taking Luvox developed mania during short-term controlled clinical trials. Mania is a psychosis which can produce bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder. Interestingly, in a recent controlled clinical trial, Prozac produced mania in the same age group at a rate of 6%. These are very high rates for drug-induced mania--much higher than those produced in adults. Yet the risk will be even higher during long-term clinical use where medical supervision, as in the case of Harris, is much more lax than in controlled clinical trials. These drugs also produce irritability, aggression or hostility, alienation, agitation, and loss of empathy.
Reports suggest that Eric Harris may have had a relatively good family life. If so, it adds to the probability that he was suffering from a drug-induced manic reaction caused by Luvox. The phenomenon of drug-induced manic reactions caused by antidepressants is so widely recognized that it is discussed several times in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association and many times in The Physicians' Desk Referenc
What a waste of skin.
Too bad he didnt decide to just off himself quietly.
His parents have a LOT of explaining to do.
All of this went on for a YEAR !
And they never had a clue ?
Hell, he was giving every sign that he was unstable and prone to violence.
Natural selection indeed....
They KNEW???? Someone should have quit her job pronto and kept a 24-7 watch on this kid.
The only difference between Klebold and me is that I had a great time in high school, had a conscience, was not terribly angry, got a fair number of dates, wouldn't have hurt a fly, did well in classes, didn't steal any motor vehicles, didn't ask anyone to purchase a firearm for me, didn't kill anyone, never kept an angry journal, didn't have racist feelings, had no anger towards women, barely even was in any fights, and was developing a pretty decent sense of humor.
Other than that, we were identical.
Dear Friend of Education,I'm outraged at the audacity of public school authorities and the intrusiveness of their agenda!
Let me explain.
I had the opportunity to meet Columbine survivor Mark Taylor, his mother and a former member of the Colorado State School Board at the Denver airport last month, just after the second anniversary of the Columbine massacre.
Mark has left public school and has been on home study since he was shot seven times and left for dead. I talked with him long into the night about his recovery and his schooling. He told me of the intense pressure put on him to return to Columbine High School. I was apalled as I heard him recount how one school authority told him...
"If your mom is the problem, money can be found to hire a lawyer to sue her so you can return to Columbine. . .
Marshall Fritz
President
Alliance for the Separation of School and State
No way, jose. "Vodka" was most likely an adult who taught them how to construct bombs. 2 teenagers did not haul 60 bombs into that school overnight. 2 teenagers and a group of men, (feds IMHO) hauled in the bombs and did the shooting. Some Columbine witnesses report seeing as many as eight gunmen.
Huh? What would they have done when he killed somebody? Take away the car keys? This is crazy. Parents, if your kid is making bombs he needs to be put away for a while.
I think all of his problems stem from low self-esteem </liberal psychiatrist>
Actually, the anti-depressant theory might not be so kooky. Anti-depressants could have boosted his self-esteem to dangerous levels. The difference between low- and high self-esteem for someone like Eric Harris is the difference between suicide and mass murder.
Liberals are stupid and easy to deceive.
The truth of the world does not conform to their beliefs, so when you show them something they want to see, they'll believe it, no matter how crazy.
"I want to tear a throat out with my own teeth like a pop can. I want to gut someone with my hand, to tear a head off and rip out the heart and lungs from the neck, to stab someone in the gut, shove it up to their heart, and yank the fucking blade out of their rib cage! I want to grab some weak little freshman and just tear them apart like a wolf, show them who is god. Strangle them, squish their head, bite their temples in the skull, rip off their jaw...the lovely sounds of bones cracking and flesh ripping, ahhh...so much to do and so little chances."
I hate people like this, the evil losers who give us non-evil losers a bad name.
Remember, just because the voices in your head tell you to do something doesn't mean you have to do it.
So much for the lack-of-self-esteem theory...