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From Dr. Julian Whitacker’s Feb 2013 newsletter:

School Shootings: Evil or Drug-Induced Behavior?

In the hit movie A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise
and Jack Nicholson have a heated courtroom
faceoff.
Cruise: “...Did you order the Code Red?”
Nicholson: “You want answers?”
Cruise: “I want the truth!”
Nicholson: “You can’t handle the truth!”
Well, can you handle the truth about the clear
connection and probable causation of psychiatric
drugs with the murderous violence that is so
common today?
On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza
fatally shot his mother in her home in Newtown,
Connecticut. Armed with an assault rifle and two
handguns, he then burst into the nearby Sandy
Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children, six
adults, and himself.
Tragic, heartbreaking, shocking, horrendous,
unthinkable, inexplicable: All are apt descriptions of
this act of murderous mayhem—except for inexplicable.
Although the details on this specific incident
are yet to be confirmed, I can say with near certainty
that Adam Lanza was taking psychiatric medication.
First, it was reported that he underwent psychiatric
evaluation and had been medicated as early as
age 10. Second, this is by no means the first time
these drugs have been associated with murder and
suicide. Between 2004 and 2011, the FDA’s Adverse
Events Reporting System for drug side effects logged
12,755 reports of psychiatric medications relating to
violence. Among them were 359 homicides, 7,250

incidences of aggression, and 2,795 episodes of mania.
There were also 9,310 suicides. Actually, the damage
is far greater. According to the FDA, fewer than 10
percent of adverse reactions are reported. To get a
truer picture of the horrors of these medications,
multiply these numbers by 10!
This isn’t even the first school shooting linked
with psychiatric drugs. The 14 school shootings
and the 10 murders and murder-suicides listed on
page 3—which left a total of 102 dead and 131
wounded—were all committed by individuals who
have been positively identified as having been
taking or withdrawing from antidepressants or other
psychiatric drugs.

A Litany of Murder and Mayhem
• Pittsburgh, PA, March 8, 2012: John Shick,
age 30, shot and killed one employee at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s
Western Psychiatric Institute and injured six
other people before he was killed by the police.
Forty-three prescription medications, including nine
antidepressants, were found in his apartment.
• Seal Beach, CA, October 12, 2011: Scott
Dekraai, 41, killed eight people, including his
ex-wife, and wounded one at the hair salon where
she worked. He had been prescribed Trazodone, an
antidepressant, and Topamax, a mood stabilizer.
• Huntsville, AL, February 5, 2010: Hammad
Memon, 14, shot and killed a fellow student
at their middle school. He had been treated for
depression and ADHD and was taking the antidepressant
Zoloft and other drugs.
• Lakeland, FL, May 3, 2009: Troy Bellar, 34,
killed his wife and their 5-month- and 8-yearold
sons, and then shot himself. He was taking
Tegretol for bipolar disorder.
• Granberry Crossroads, AL, April 26, 2009:
Fred B. Davis, 53, killed a policeman and
wounded a deputy sheriff after threatening a
neighbor with a gun. He had been prescribed
Geodon, an antipsychotic drug.
• Middletown, MD, April 17, 2009: Christopher
Wood, 34, cut and shot his wife and three children,
ages 5, 4, and 2, and then committed suicide. He
had been on the antidepressants Cymbalta and Paxil
and the anti-anxiety medications BuSpar and Xanax.
• Concord, CA, January 11, 2009: Jason Montes,
33, killed his 25-year-old wife and shot himself to
death in their home. He had started taking Prozac.
• Kauhajoki, Finland, September 23, 2008:
Matti Saari, 22, shot and killed 9 other
students, wounded another, and killed a teacher
before killing himself. He was taking an antidepressant
and a benzodiazepine.
• Little Rock, AR, August 13, 2008: Timothy
Johnson, 50, shot and killed Arkansas
Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney at
the party’s headquarters; he was then pursued
and killed by police. A police report confirmed
that he was taking an antidepressant and “…the
drug may have played a part in his ‘irrational and
violent behavior.’”
• Dekalb, IL, February 14, 2008: Steven
Kazmierczak, 27, shot and killed five people and
wounded 21, then killed himself in an auditorium
at Northern Illinois University, where he
had been a student. He had recently been taking
Prozac, Xanax, and Ambien, a sleeping aid.
• Omaha, NE, December 5, 2007: Robert
Hawkins, 19, killed eight people and wounded
five before committing suicide in an Omaha
mall. Autopsy results confirmed he was under the
influence of the anti-anxiety drug Valium.
• Jokela, Finland, November 7, 2007: Pekka-Eric
Auvinen, 18, killed five boys, one girl, the principal,
and the school nurse and wounded a dozen
others at his high school before killing himself.
He had been taking antidepressants.
• Cleveland, OH, October 10, 2007: Asa Coon,
14, shot two students and two teachers at his
high school and then committed suicide. He had
been prescribed Trazodone.
• Red Lake, MN, March 21, 2005: Jeff Weise,
16, killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s
girlfriend, and drove to the high school on the
Red Lake Indian Reservation where he opened
fire, killing seven people and wounding five. He
then shot himself to death. He was on Prozac.
• East Greenbush, NY, February 9, 2004: Jon
Romano, 16, took a shotgun to school and
wounded a teacher. He had been on medication
for depression.
• North Meridian, FL, July 8, 2003: Doug
Williams, 48, shot 14 of his co-workers at
Lockheed Martin with a shotgun, killing six of
them, before turning the gun on himself. He
was reported to have been on two antidepressants,
Zoloft and Celexa.
• Wahluke, WA, April 10, 2001: Cory
Baadsgaard, 16, held 23 classmates and a teacher
hostage using a rifle he had taken to school. He
had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.
• El Cajon, CA, March 22, 2001: Jason Hoffman,
18, opened fire at his high school, injuring three
students and two teachers. He committed suicide
while in jail later that year. He was on two antidepressants,
Celexa and Effexor.
• Williamsport, PA, March 7, 2001: Elizabeth
Bush, 14, took a revolver to school and shot
another student in the shoulder. She was taking
Prozac.
• Wakefield, MA, December 26, 2000: Michael
McDermott, 42, shot and killed seven fellow
employees at Edgewater Technology. He was
taking three antidepressants.

• Conyers, GA, May 20, 1999: T.J. Solomon, 15,
wounded six of his high school classmates with
a gun he had taken to school. He was taking
Ritalin, a stimulant often prescribed for ADHD.
• Columbine, CO, April 20, 1999: Eric Harris,
18, and, Dylan Klebold, 17, shot and killed
12 students and a teacher
and wounded 26 others at
their high school before
killing themselves. Harris
was taking an antidepressant,
Luvox; Klebold’s medical
records are sealed.
• Notus, ID, April 16, 1999:
Shawn Cooper, 15, took a
shotgun to school and shot
two rounds; no one was
injured. He was taking Ritalin
and an SSRI antidepressant.
• Springfield, OR, May 21,
1998: Kip Kinkel, 15, shot
his parents to death with a
rifle. The next day, armed
with five weapons and over
1,000 rounds of ammunition,
he went to school and
opened fire in the cafeteria,
killing two and wounding 25.
He had been taking Prozac.
Many More Sad Stories
This list, which was compiled
by the Citizens Commission
on Human Rights, is far from
comprehensive. These medications
are strongly suspected in many other school
shootings, murders, and murder-suicides, but we’ll
never know for sure.
Under the guise of protection of privacy, the
medical records of the individuals who commit these
unspeakable acts of violence are often sealed—as
if anyone who kills innocent people, many of them
children, needs or deserves such privacy. James
Holmes, who opened fire in a movie theater in
Aurora, Colorado, last year, killing 12 and wounding
58, had been seeing a psychiatrist. It’s probable
that he had been prescribed medications, but despite
repeated requests, no specifics have been released.
And that’s just one recent example.

Nor does this list include the thousands of
unexpected, uncharacteristic suicides or episodes of
bizarre behavior by people who were under the influence
of psychiatric drugs. You may have heard about
Mary Kennedy, estranged wife of Robert Kennedy,
Jr., and mother of four, who had traces of three antidepressants
in her system at the time of her suicide
last year. Or Tony Scott, director of Top Gun and
other movies, who was on an
antidepressant and sleeping
pills when he leapt to his death
in August. Or perhaps you’re
aware of psychiatric drug-related
suicides or other incidents in
your own community or circle
of acquaintances.
The real tragedy is that
many of these sad stories could
have been prevented, if only the
truth about psychiatric drugs
had been told—and the truth is
hiding in plain sight.
Dangers in Plain Sight
If you want confirmation of
psychiatric drugs’ propensity for
promoting violence and suicide,
you don’t have to look very
far—it’s printed on the product
labels and patient information
sheets! Law requires that all
antidepressants carry “black
box” label warnings (the most
serious type of warnings) stating
they increase the risk of suicidal
thinking and behavior in children,
adolescents, and young adults. Imagine people
who are depressed being prescribed drugs that clearly
state right on the bottle that they could make them
worse and more likely to commit suicide. It’s insane!
But there’s more. Product inserts also list additional
adverse effects, including worsening depression,
anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia,
irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity,
mania, and akathisia.
Akathisia, characterized by unpleasant feelings
of restlessness and an inability to sit still, is
particularly common in patients taking selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, the most
popular class of antidepressants, which include
Zoloft, Paxil, and Prozac). Studies suggest that
medication-induced akathisia “exacerbates psychopathology”
and dramatically increases the risk of
suicide and violence.
So why are they prescribed? The psychopathology
induced by psychiatric drugs can be so
extreme that the perpetrators of these tragedies—
who rarely have a history of violence or criminal
behavior—don’t simply commit suicide. Like
Adam Lanza, they kill themselves at the end of a
bloody, murderous rampage.
Role of Drugs Must Be Recognized
What happens when a bicycle, baby crib, washing
machine, or any other consumer product is
discovered to pose some sort of safety threat? The
manufacturer issues an alert and often a voluntary
recall to repair or replace the product. The U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission releases
information on safety issues and holds these
companies responsible. And if the dangers are
significant or widespread, the press picks up on it,
and the product may be removed from the marketplace,
and suits are often filed.
What happens when a psychiatric drug harms
someone? Nothing! Despite tens of thousands of
reports to the FDA of psychiatric drug-related
violence and suicide, other massacres that involved
the use of these medications, and solid scientific
research—including warnings on the medication
labels themselves—there is no hue and cry, no
action at all!
The major news outlets lament the disintegration
of our society and discuss as possible solutions gun
control, heightened security at schools, and curbing
violence in video games, TV shows, and movies. But
they rarely bring up the real cause: psychiatric drugs.
That topic is taboo.
You’d think the FDA, the agency tasked with
protecting the public against dangerous and ineffective
drugs, would be all over this. A recent study,
based on the FDA’s own Adverse Events Reporting
System, concluded that compared with other drugs,
11 antidepressants, 6 sedatives, and 3 ADHD drugs
are 8 to 10 times more likely to be linked with
murder, homicidal thoughts, physical assault or
abuse, and violence against others. Yet the FDA
gives a free pass to all these drugs.
What about Congress? Why hasn’t there
been a federal investigation into these horrendous
catastrophes, which occur with disturbing regularity?
At the very least, immediate public disclosure of the
medication histories of the perpetrators of such atrocities
should be required. That would at least bring it
into the open and make it part of the debate.
Willful Ignorance or Worse
Above all, why hasn’t Big Pharma stepped up and
addressed this issue? If the products made by pharmaceutical
companies are safe, then let them prove it!
We ask no less of lawnmower and toy manufacturers.
Why isn’t Big Pharma, makers of the most dangerous
of all consumer products, held accountable?
I’ll tell you why. Drug companies make billions of
dollars selling medications they well know can cause
severe psychotic breakdown.
Big Pharma pays the FDA millions in fees to
approve and license their products, and the ties
between these two entities are so tight that it’s
been described as the “fox guarding the henhouse.”
Pharmaceutical companies have more paid lobbyists
and donate more to political campaigns than almost
every other industry. And virtually all news outlets,
particularly the large ones, are heavily supported by
Big Pharma’s advertising dollars.
You may be thinking, “Dr. Whitaker, you’re far
too harsh.” Actually, I’m only being realistic. This is
a very, very important issue, and it’s one that’s been
swept under the carpet for far too long. It’s high time
we open our eyes to the truth about psychiatric drugs.
We don’t need to ban video games or install metal
detectors in kindergarten classrooms. What we really
need is prescription drug control—and the removal of
dozens of psychiatric drugs from the marketplace.

References
Koliscak LP, et al. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-induced
akathisia. J Am Pharm Assoc. 2009 Mar–Apr;49(2):e28–36.
Moore TJ, et al. Prescription drugs associated with reports of violence
towards others. PLoS ONE. 2010;5(12): e15337. doi:10.1371/journal.
pone.0015337
Adverse reactions reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
from 2004–2011; decrypted by Citizens Commission on Human
Rights International. cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International. Another
school shooting, another psychiatric drug? Federal investigation long
overdue. cchrint.org/2012/07/20/the-aurora-colorado-tragedyanother-
senseless-shooting-another-psychotropic-drug/
Bengali S, et al. Adam Lanza’s family had kept a watchful eye on him.
Los Angeles Times. Dec. 17, 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/
dec/17/nation/la-na-shooter-profile-20121218

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