Top Five Psychiatric Drugs Linked to Violence

To assert psychiatry is careless in prescribing drugs for its various diagnosed disorders is a monstrous trivialization of the problem.

Many of their drugs have been directly linked to suicide and violent behavior, sometimes resulting in murder on a grand scale. In a 2011 study based on data from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System, 31 drugs were linked with violent behavior.

Here are some of the worst offenders:

• Varenicline (Chantix) – Some of the side effects listed for this smoking cessation drug, which is 18 times more likely to result in violence, includes:

• Seeing things that are not there
• Suicidal Thoughts
• Anger
• Behavior Changes
• Irritability
• Mood swings

An Oregon woman found her husband and son dead, both killed by her husband (who had been prescribed Chantix by his dentist.) There have been many other instances of homicide traced back to this drug. Why Chantix has not been withdrawn from the marketplace is hard to fathom.

• Prozac – This antidepressant is 10.9 more likely to be associated with violence than other medications. This drug has over 80 side effects, ranging from merely uncomfortable, to deadly. Here a few of the worst:

• Use of extreme physical or emotional force
• Suicidal thoughts
• Paranoia
• Violent behavior
• Mania
• Panic Attacks
• Abnormal thoughts

By the year 2000, Eli Lilly had paid $50 million dollars to settle 30 prozac lawsuits involving suicide and murder by those at the mercy of this drug.

• Paxil – This antidepressant is linked to birth defects and severe withdrawal symptoms. It has a 10.3 likelihood of violence associated with it. Some other Paxil side effects include:

• Auditory Hallucinations
• Suicide attempts
• Aggravated Nervousness
• Acting aggressive or violent
• Acting on dangerous impulses

Donald Schell had been on Paxil for only 48 hours when he shot and killed his wife, daughter, his granddaughter and himself. The case came to trial, and a jury found GlaxoSmithKline liable for the deaths, and ordered the drug company to pay 6.4 million dollars to the relatives of Schell.

• Amphetamines – This includes Adderall, used to treat ADHD in children. It has been linked to suicide and violent behavior. Just a few Adderall side effects include:

• Aggression
• Anger
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Tourette’s syndrome
• Suicidal thoughts

Kyle Craig’s parents are living with the horrendous loss of their son, a victim of this drug’s suicidal side effects. At the age of 21, while a college student at Vanderbilt University, he stepped in front of a passenger train and ended his life.

• Fluvoxamine (Luvox) – This drug is used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, and has been linked to violent behavior. Here is a partial list of its side effects:

• Impulsive behavior
• Irritability
• Agitation
• Hostility
• Aggression
• Hyperactive
• Suicidal thoughts

Eric Harris, perpetrator of the 1999 Columbine school shooting tragedy in which 12 students were murdered and another 21 were injured was on Luvox.

Why are these drugs still on the market?

It seems a mystery, since the vast number of people would be happy to see these violent inducing drugs disappear forever.

But psychiatry maintains a fondness for these drugs and their unholy alliance with big pharmaceutical companies keep violent inducing drugs in production.

It is up to each of us to educate ourselves on the side effects of these drugs. There is often a medical reason behind a so-called mental disorder, and examination by a competent (not psychiatric) medical doctor can often trace back the problem to a physical cause.

Treatment with psychiatric drugs is very much playing Russian roulette with the lives of our loved ones.

SOURCES:

http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/07/top-ten-legal-drugs-linked-to-violence/

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/chantix-side-effects.html

http://www.drugs.com/sfx/prozac-side-effects.html

http://www.theroadback.org/paxilsideeffects.aspx

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm088676.pdf

http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/drug-injury-press-releases/paxil-maker-held-liable-in-murder-suicide.php

http://www.drugwatch.com/prozac/lawsuit.php

http://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-1089/luvox+oral/details/list-sideeffects

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/adderall-psychosis-suicide-college-students-abuse-study-drug/story?id=12066619

http://www.drugs.com/mtm/luvox.html

RX Dangers

[BOOK] Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex

Renowned psychiatrist Peter Breggin documents how psychiatric drugs and electroshock (ECT) disable the brain. He presents the latest scientific information on potential brain dysfunction and dangerous behavioral abnormalities produced by the most widely used drugs including Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Ritalin, and lithium. Even though this book was published a few years ago, it is still a highly relevant and import work

Many of Breggin's earlier findings have improved clinical practice, led to legal victories against drug companies, and resulted in FDA-mandated changes in what the manufacturers must admit about their drugs. This greatly expanded second edition, supported by the latest evidence-based research, shows that psychiatric drugs achieve their primary or essential effect by causing brain dysfunction, and they tend to do far more harm than good.

Author's website

Available through Amazon.com here.

Author's description of the book:

"For those who have been following my work or who wish an introduction to my lifetime reform efforts and scientific investigations in the field of psychiatry, the newly published second edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (Springer Publishing Company, 2008) has recently been published. It is a thorough and up-to-date presentation of my overall critique of modern psychiatry, including the latest medications and treatments.

"The new edition describes general principles for the safe withdrawal from psychiatric drugs with specific examples of withdrawal problems related to each type of psychiatric medication, including antidepressants, tranquilizers, stimulants, mood stabilizers and neuroleptic (antipsychotic) drugs. For interested professionals, patients and clients, it presents guidelines for how to conduct psychotherapy and counseling without resort to psychiatric drugs, even for the most emotionally distressed people.

"The new edition of the book presents evidence confirming many of the first edition’s most controversial conclusions. Research continues to demonstrate that antidepressants are ineffective in treating depression and instead increase the risk of suicidality. As another example, additional studies have shown that stimulants offer no long-term positive effects on the behavior of children and that these drugs suppress growth and make children prone to cocaine abuse as young adults. Recent reports continue to confirm that electroshock causes permanent brain damage and cognitive dysfunction.

"The scientific premise of the book is that all psychiatric treatments—drugs, electroshock and lobotomy—have their 'therapeutic' impact by disabling the brain. They do not improve brain function or correct biochemical imbalances, they cause brain dysfunction and biochemical imbalances. These brain-disabling interventions are then considered effective when the doctor, family, patient or society views impaired brain dysfunction in the target individuals as a desirable or beneficial effect. Because psychiatric drugs in reality do more harm than good, the psychopharmaceutical complex must devote billions of dollars to exerting its power and influence in the political, professional and public arenas.

"'Antipsychotic' drugs such as Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Geodon are used literally to chemically lobotomize millions of adults and children because the resulting apathy and indifference are seen as an improvement over their previously distressed and distressing state of mind or behavior. Millions more adults take 'tranquilizers' like Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin and Valium, suppressing their overall brain function in order to reduce feelings of anxiety. A large percentage of our nation’s children have their spontaneity reduced or even crushed by stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall and Strattera, causing them to become more docile and more obsessively attentive to rote work.

"Despite all the propaganda, antidepressants such Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Cymbalta have no scientifically demonstrable effectiveness and are proven to cause suicidality, as well as violence and mania. They too 'work' by causing mental disabilities such as apathy and euphoria that are misinterpreted as improvements. Meanwhile, their continued widespread use is determined in part by the fact that withdrawal produces severe psychiatric symptoms, including anxiety and depression. In short, it is too difficult and painful for people to stop taking them.

"All psychiatric drugs have the potential to cause withdrawal reactions, including the antidepressants, stimulants, tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs and 'mood stabilizers' such lithium. When the individual’s condition grows markedly worse within days or weeks of stopping the psychiatric drug, this is almost always due to a withdrawal reaction. However, misinformed doctors and misled parents, teachers and patients think that this is evidence that the individual 'needs' the drug even more, when in fact he or she needs time to recover from withdrawal effects.

"People commonly use alcohol, marijuana and other non-prescription drugs to dull their feelings. Usually they do not fool themselves into believing they are somehow improving the function of their minds and brains. Yet when people take psychiatric drugs, they almost always do so without realizing that the drugs “work” by disrupting brain function, that the drugs cause withdrawal effects, and that they frequently result in dangerous and destructive mental reactions and behaviors.

"Most consumers of psychiatric drugs do not realize how much these chemical agents disrupt the function of the brain and mind. As a result, their treatment in effect becomes involuntary. Many other adults are physically forced to these drugs in hospitals and even under outpatient commitment that allows for enforced drugging in the home. Because children cannot control their lives, or understand the implications of taking drugs, they are always involuntary participants in these brain-disabling treatments. Our society needs to stop forcing psychoactive drugs on its citizens, young and old.

"Electroshock provides a more obvious illustration of the brain-disabling effects of psychiatric treatment. Shock treatment is simply closed-head injury caused by an overwhelming current of electricity sufficient to cause a grand mal seizure. When the patient becomes apathetic, the doctor writes in the hospital chart, 'No longer complaining.' When the patient displays the euphoria commonly associated brain damage, the doctor writes, 'mood improved.' Meanwhile, the individual’s brain and mind are so drastically injured that he or she is rendered unable to protest. They are easily led to take repeated shock treatments. In many cases, family members must intervene to stop the destructive 'treatment.'

"The brain-disabling principle of psychiatric treatment is not a speculation. It is a solid scientific theory based on hundreds of evidence-based reports, clinical experience, and common sense observations. I believe it will stand the test of time."

"The new edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry introduces the concept of medication spellbinding—the capacity of psychoactive drugs to blunt the individual’s appreciation of drug-induced mental dysfunction and, at times, to encourage a misperception that they are doing better than ever when they are, in fact, doing worse than ever. In the extreme, medication spellbinding drives individuals into bizarre, out-of-character destructive actions, including suicide and violence. Medication spellbinding is an aspect of the brain-disabling principle that explains why so many individuals take drugs of all kinds, from antidepressants to alcohol, when they are causing them great harm and even destroying their lives.

"The power of the psychopharmaceutical complex, a concept that I introduced in 1991 in Toxic Psychiatry, has now received confirmation from innumerable books by disenchanted members of the medical establishment. The new edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry reviews some of these other books and articles, and presents details about how the drug companies continue to rule the world of psychiatry; they control research and journal publications, dominate medical education, collaborate with insurance companies and federal agencies, and finance organized psychiatry and medicine.

"This new edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry has a long history, originating in the 1983 publication of Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain and then evolving into the initial 1997 edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry. The concepts and information—contained 16 detailed chapters and 85 pages of scientific bibliography—provide a mountain of information about what’s wrong with modern psychiatry and what’s needed to correct it."

In 2000, a study was done in which 20 healthy non-depressed volunteers were given the SSRI antidepressant Zoloft (Sertraline). Two weeks into the study two volunteers became dangerously suicidal.

As reported in the Guardian on Sunday 21 May 2000

Much more info at the link

Alarming evidence from a new British study shows that the Prozac class of antidepressants can make healthy men, women and children with no history of depression feel suicidal.

The research undermines the claims of Eli Lilly, makers of Prozac, that people who kill themselves while on the tablets do so because of their depression, and that the disease, not the drug, is to blame for their suicide.

Its findings are particularly worrying because of the increasing numbers of people, including children, who are being given the drugs by their GP for mild depression, and who are not seriously clinically ill.

[...]

It found that two out of 20 healthy volunteers on an antidepressant in the Prozac class called Lustral (or Zoloft in the USA) became dangerously suicidal, compared with none of them when they were put on an antidepressant of a different class called reboxetine.

One 30-year-old woman who took part had a nightmare about having her throat slit after one week and by the end of a fortnight, was suicidal. "She felt hopeless and alone. It seemed that all she could do was to follow a thought that had been planted in her brain from some alien force. She suddenly decided she should go and throw herself in front of a car, that this was the only answer.

"It was as if there was nothing out there apart from the car, which she was going to throw herself under. She didn't think of her partner or child," says the study, published in the journal Primary Care Psychiatry.

Later she completed a diary entry, describing herself as jumpy, anxious and suspicious. "Her mind was racing and spiraling out of control. Then it went blank except for the clear thought that she must kill herself violently by throwing herself beneath a car or a train."