As the search for answers begins following the senseless and indiscriminate shooting in Plymouth, the cause of senseless violence is once again firmly under the spotlight.
It’s been said many times before; there is never one simple explanation for what drives a human being to commit such an unspeakable act, but a common denominator has surfaced in hundreds of cases—prescribed psychiatric drugs, documented to cause mania, psychosis, violence, suicide and in some cases, homicidal ideation.
For decades, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has been collecting information on numerous similar acts of senseless violence, acts where the psychiatric connections have eventually surfaced.
The Plymouth gunman Jake Davison was reported to have attended an anger management course. The school shooter Eric Harris had also been receiving anger management a year before the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999.
Esteban Santiago, the gunman involved in the Ft Lauderdale shooting tragedy in 2017, had also been ‘treated’ for mental health issues.
Then there was James Holmes who murdered 12 people in a Colorado cinema in 2012. It was revealed he too had been ‘treated’ for mental health issues and had been prescribed an antidepressant drug.
It also surfaced that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who flew Flight 9525 into the Alps in 2015, killing all the passengers and crew, had been under psychiatric care and was being treated by several psychiatrists.
While gun laws are put to the top of the list as a means of curtailing these kinds of tragedies, the role of psychiatric treatment, especially antidepressants, should also be investigated and closely scrutinised.
The safety of psychiatric drugs has been questioned for decades and with so many violent deaths and suicides linked to their use, public safety continues to be compromised. Worldwide concerns have been reflected in the release of 27 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation.
It’s vital to continue repeating this message about the dangers of psychiatric treatments until it gets through to those who can make the necessary changes so that public safety doesn’t continue to be compromised.
Further reading: Psychiatric Drugs: Create Suicide & Violence
