People seeking effective prevention and treatment of mental health issues have been complaining about the horrible side effects of drugs prescribed by psychiatrists for decades. Generally their complaints are ignored and they are strongly encouraged to take these drugs or even forced to take them with court orders. This is very dangerous. Kelly Patricia O’Meara reported for the CCHR on Sept. 22, 2015, a new study has confirmed that antidepressants really do cause violence.
O’Meara points out that the mainstream press such as the LA Times and Reuters have been reporting on the association between taking antidepressants and violent behavior. These reports have been based on a new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine. Researchers have found young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 years old were about fifty percent more likely to be convicted of a serious crime such as homicide, assault, arson, robbery, kidnapping, and sexual offense when taking the antidepressant than when they weren’t taking a psychiatric drug.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has been at the forefront of exposing the connection between psychiatric drugs and violent behavior along with other serious side effects of psychiatric drugs for nearly two decades. In 1991 the CCHR helped to organize hearings before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where victims and experts came together to testify that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are a cause of suicide and violence which includes homicide.
O’Meara reported that shockingly despite the dramatic reports dealing with the association of suicide and violence with antidepressants the FDA Advisory Committee refused to issue a warning to the public about the link between suicide and antidepressants. This committee also did not offer any consideration of whether the antidepressants may be associated with other violent behavior. Many members of the FDA Advisory Committee had financial conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical companies that make these dangerous drugs.
Finally years later under increasing pressure to act on this problem by whistleblowers within the industry the FDA began to respond. A “black box” warning for suicidal ideation and behavior was finally issued on these antidepressants. Nevertheless the association between violence and homicide with antidepressants was still ignored despite 22 warnings on psychiatric drugs causing violence issued by international drug regulatory agencies. Furthermore at least 35 school shootings and/or school associated acts of violence with 169 wounded and 79 killed have been committed by students and others taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs.
O’Meara has also pointed out that another recent report has exposed the fraudulent research of GlaxoSmithKline’s antidepressant Paxil. A review of the data used for the approval of the antidepressant shows that Paxil is not effective in the treatment of kids and a significant risk of suicide has been associated with it. This problem becomes even more serious in view of the fact that the psychiatrists rarely if ever make accurate diagnoses and that their diagnoses are all based on their subjective whims.
The terribly flawed diagnostic abilities of the psychiatrists coupled with the horrible side effects from the psychiatric mainstay of treatments for what the psychiatrists label as mental illness shows that the CCHR has been right on target in moving for the permanent abolition of psychiatry. With so many millions upon millions of crimes having been committed by psychiatrists along with millions of lives ruined there is no room for reforms. Saying psychiatry could be reformed is like saying the Nazi party could be reformed.
