Psychiatric Drugs: The Giant, Gaping Hole in Sandy Hook Reporting
_Featured_, Big Pharma Monday, January 7th, 2013
By DAVID KUPELIAN | WND.com
Since last month’s horrifying and heartbreaking school massacre in Newtown, Conn., politicians and the press have, as everyone knows, been totally obsessed with firearms.
Indeed, President Obama has vowed to impose strong new gun-control measures on the nation – very soon, with or without Congress.
Other possible factors – from violent video games to the “failure of our mental-health system” to the unintended consequences of making schools “gun-free zones” – have taken a back seat to guns. Within hours of the gruesome mega-crime, the media had provided extensive, round-the-clock coverage of precisely which firearms, manufacturers and calibers the perpetrator had used, how he had obtained them from his mother, where they were originally purchased, and so on.
But where, I’d like to ask my colleagues in the media, is the reporting about the psychiatric medications the perpetrator – who had been under treatment for mental-health problems – may have been taking? After all, Mark and Louise Tambascio, family friends of the shooter and his mother, were interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” during which Louise Tambascio told correspondent Scott Pelley: “I know he was on medication and everything, but she homeschooled him at home cause he couldn’t deal with the school classes sometimes, so she just homeschooled Adam at home. And that was her life.” And here, Tambascio tells ABC News, “I knew he was on medication, but that’s all I know.”
It has been more than three weeks since the shooting. We know all about the guns he used, but what “medication” may he have used? (One brief mini-hoax emerged when the New York Daily News published a story claiming the shooter, according to his uncle, had been on the controversial antipsychotic drug Fanapt. That story was quickly withdrawn after the “uncle” turned out to be a fraudster with no relation to the murderer.)
So, what is the truth? Where is the journalistic curiosity? Where is the follow-up? Where is the police report, the medical examiner’s report, the interviews with his doctor and others?
Get autographed copies of both of David Kupelian’s classics: “The Marketing of Evil” and “How Evil Works.”
But let me back up. Perhaps you’re wondering why this issue of psychiatric medications should be so important.
As I documented in “How Evil Works,” it is simply indisputable that most perpetrators of school shootings and similar mass murders in our modern era were either on – or just recently coming off of – psychiatric medications:
- Columbine mass-killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox – like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and many others, a modern and widely prescribed type of antidepressant drug called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Harris and fellow student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999 during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before turning their guns on themselves.Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical trials, 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox – that’s 1 in 25 – developed mania, a dangerous and violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement and delusion.
- Patrick Purdy went on a schoolyard shooting rampage in Stockton, Calif., in 1989, which became the catalyst for the original legislative frenzy to ban “semiautomatic assault weapons” in California and the nation. The 25-year-old Purdy, who murdered five children and wounded 30, had been on Amitriptyline, an antidepressant, as well as the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.
- Kip Kinkel, 15, murdered his parents in 1998 and the next day went to his school, Thurston High in Springfield, Ore., and opened fire on his classmates, killing two and wounding 22 others. He had been prescribed both Prozac and Ritalin.
- In 1988, 31-year-old Laurie Dann went on a shooting rampage in a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Ill., killing one child and wounding six. She had been taking the antidepressant Anafranil as well as Lithium, long used to treat mania.
- In Paducah, Ky., in late 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal, son of a prominent attorney, traveled to Heath High School and started shooting students in a prayer meeting taking place in the school’s lobby, killing three and leaving another paralyzed. Carneal reportedly was on Ritalin.
- In 2005, 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise, living on Minnesota’s Red Lake Indian Reservation, shot and killed nine people and wounded five others before killing himself. Weise had been taking Prozac.
- In another famous case, 47-year-old Joseph T. Wesbecker, just a month after he began taking Prozac in 1989, shot 20 workers at Standard Gravure Corp. in Louisville, Ky., killing nine. Prozac-maker Eli Lilly later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.
- Kurt Danysh, 18, shot his own father to death in 1996, a little more than two weeks after starting on Prozac. Danysh’s description of own his mental-emotional state at the time of the murder is chilling: “I didn’t realize I did it until after it was done,” Danysh said. “This might sound weird, but it felt like I had no control of what I was doing, like I was left there just holding a gun.”
- John Hinckley, age 25, took four Valium two hours before shooting and almost killing President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In the assassination attempt, Hinckley also wounded press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and policeman Thomas Delahanty.
- Andrea Yates, in one of the most heartrending crimes in modern history, drowned all five of her children – aged 7 years down to 6 months – in a bathtub. Insisting inner voices commanded her to kill her children, she had become increasingly psychotic over the course of several years. At her 2006 murder re-trial (after a 2002 guilty verdict was overturned on appeal), Yates’ longtime friend Debbie Holmes testified: “She asked me if I thought Satan could read her mind and if I believed in demon possession.” And Dr. George Ringholz, after evaluating Yates for two days, recounted an experience she had after the birth of her first child: “What she described was feeling a presence … Satan … telling her to take a knife and stab her son Noah,” Ringholz said, adding that Yates’ delusion at the time of the bathtub murders was not only that she had to kill her children to save them, but that Satan had entered her and that she had to be executed in order to kill Satan.Yates had been taking the antidepressant Effexor. In November 2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added “homicidal ideation” to the drug’s list of “rare adverse events.” The Medical Accountability Network, a private nonprofit focused on medical ethics issues, publicly criticized Wyeth, saying Effexor’s “homicidal ideation” risk wasn’t well-publicized and that Wyeth failed to send letters to doctors or issue warning labels announcing the change.And what exactly does “rare” mean in the phrase “rare adverse events”? The FDA defines it as occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. But since that same year 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled in the U.S., statistically that means thousands of Americans might experience “homicidal ideation” – murderous thoughts – as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant drug.Effexor is Wyeth’s best-selling drug, by the way, which in one recent year brought in over $3 billion in sales, accounting for almost a fifth of the company’s annual revenues.
One more case is instructive, that of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, who struggled in court to explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love and stability he’d ever known in his turbulent life. “When I was lying in my bed that night,” he testified, “I couldn’t sleep because my voice in my head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them.” Christopher had been angry with his grandfather, who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them.”I got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger,” he recalled. “Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show. You know what is going to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it.”Pittman’s lawyers would later argue that the boy had been a victim of “involuntary intoxication,” since his doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior to the murders.Paxil’s known “adverse drug reactions” – according to the drug’s FDA-approved label – include “mania,” “insomnia,” “anxiety,” “agitation,” “confusion,” “amnesia,” “depression,” “paranoid reaction,” “psychosis,” “hostility,” “delirium,” “hallucinations,” “abnormal thinking,” “depersonalization” and “lack of emotion,” among others.The preceding examples are only a few of the best-known offenders who had been taking prescribed psychiatric drugs before committing their violent crimes – there are many others.Whether we like to admit it or not, it is undeniable that when certain people living on the edge of sanity take psychiatric medications, those drugs can – and occasionally do – push them over the edge into violent madness. Remember, every single SSRI antidepressant sold in the United States of America today, no matter what brand or manufacturer, bears a “black box” FDA warning label – the government’s most serious drug warning – of “increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24.” Common sense tells us that where there are suicidal thoughts – especially in a very, very angry person – homicidal thoughts may not be far behind. Indeed, the mass shooters we are describing often take their own lives when the police show up, having planned their suicide ahead of time.
So, what ‘medication’ was Lanza on?
The Sandy Hook school massacre, we are constantly reminded, was the “second-worst school shooting in U.S. history.” Let’s briefly revisit the worst, Virginia Tech, because it provides an important lesson for us. One would think, in light of the stunning correlation between psych meds and mass murders, that it would be considered critical to establish definitively whether the Virginia Tech murderer of 32 people, student Cho Seung-Hui, had been taking psychiatric drugs.
Yet, more than five years later, the answer to that question remains a mystery.
Facebook
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Reddit
RSS
email
PDF
bulldust… theres as much truth to this story as there is to aurora.. and 9/11.. etc etc etc
its not drugs that makes the govt kill their own.. but it could well be the problem with people seeing the truth..
its all online.. just google it!
you have no evidence lanza was on anything..
We have no evidence that Lanza was on anything because they haven’t released the toxicology reports yet and probably never will. Just like the VA Tech shooter’s file “disappeared” for several years.
Over 30 million people take some form of psychiatric drug. And almost 20 have committed some crime. Not 20 million, 20.
More people are killed by lightning than by psychiatric drugs. More people win the lottery than killed by psychiatric drugs. More people died last year, in simple gang shootings, than were killed by psychiatric drugs.
Where do you get these stats. Please post links, otherwise your post means nothing.
Hi just wanted to say that I took medication when I had severe post natal depression after the birth of my 3rd child my beautiful daughter! I didn’t really want to take medication but I was so low & scored so high on the PND test that he convinced me to take the pills! There is a long waiting list for counselling so I took the meds while waiting for counselling! While the meds helped me function day to day I was a shell of the person I am I lost my creative drive but the worst thing was I was getting voices in my head telling me to do things to my baby girl like bang her head against a wall! Luckily I never followed the thoughts coz I followed my heart & although I wasn’t bonding with my daughter I loved her plus I already had 2 children so I knew wot I should be doing! Am very lucky I had such a supportive partner who is very in touch with his feminine side! The thing that helped me in the end was giving up the meds I had been on for 2 years & I started reading inspiring quotes & poems & anything positive I could read! I didn’t tell anyone about the voices in my head at the time because I thought my children would be taken away from me plus I didn’t realise it could be caused by the medication! I did take the medication again about 6 months later after having a miscarraige & getting low again! This time I was getting visions of blood pouring from my wrists, I would be doing normal day to day things while gtting these awful visions in my head! I did not realise it was the meds I just thought I was really ill! I also walked over a footbridge with my bike 1 time, it crosses a dual carraigeway & I had to hold the bike so tightly as I crossed because I wanted to through myself off the bridge! This was the worst few years of my life & I will never take SSRIs or antidepressants again! If I get depressed ever again I won’t even go to the doctors because as far as they are concerned there are no alternatives to pills & therapy for mental health issues! When in actuality there are many alternatives! I think its great that you are writing these articles because there are a lot of people in Britain on meds who knows how many are suffering even more because of it! Just because only 20 have commited crimes we have heard about doesn’t make it ok! Another friend of mine took the same drug as me Citalopram, which is the most commonly used SRI here, she was looking up suicide sites & trying to work out ways of killing herself before she asked her doctor to take her off them! How bad does it have to get?
You are so so lucky that you possessed the intuition to see through the “help” you were receiving from the white coats, that the love you learned through your first children and the love your partner provided sustained you through the horrors. I understand how the fact we are ‘social animals’ leads us to want to trust ‘leaders,’ to rely on others to tell us what to do because that is how we are raised and taught. What I do not understand is how, as “rational” animals, we can be provided with facts, with evidence, that this thing or that thing is a dangerous, bad thing; that our leaders – in this case, the medical professionals – are clearly wrong in their assessment of the dangers, and yet, we continue to follow their advice.
I am fortunate to have had outrageously bizarre experiences in dealing with the white coats such that I have educated myself about my body and health, have discovered that ‘alternative’ medicine is more fact-based (experience- and reality-based (rather than profit-based)) in most instances, and have determined not to see the inside of a hospital unless I am in danger of losing my life from loss of body parts/blood, or one of my major organs has stopped functioning properly.
Yes unfortunately so called modern medicine just covers the problems! Its a quick fix but that’s what most people want these days! Obviously everything has its place & if we were in desperate need of help with some awful illness we would have to go to hospital! My problems stemmed from childhood & it just all came up at that time but I have dealt with the problems now which isn’t easy! A lot of people never face their personal demons because we are not really taught how to do that! I am lucky that I am a very spiritual person I think have some kind of faith or belief is vital for the healing process to work! It definately has helped me! Maybe things are changing gradually now more & more people are waking up!
[...] http://consciouslifenews.com/psychiatric-drugs-sandy-hook-media-blackout/1147010/ [...]
[...] Psychiatric Drugs: The Giant, Gaping Hole in Sandy Hook Reporting (consciouslifenews.com) [...]
There is the concern that the gun lobby is using this to deflect from the fact that, indeed, it is guns that kill people, but that in itself is no reason to ignore the obscene charade that is the American Psychiatric Association, their incestual relationship with Big Pharma, and their utterly bizarre and immoral work of ordure, the “Bible” of the headhunters, the DSM.
It may be that “only” 20 mass murders can be circuitously attributed to anti-psychotic drugs, and even then there is no way to know the inner dynamics that led to the murders, but that should not blind us to the fact that these drugs are handed out by people who make “assessments” based on descriptions in the DSM, and that the amount of damage caused to people by misdiagnosis and improper prescription is very significant … no less so than the problems we see with non-”mental” prescription drugs.
If the subject interests you, read the chapter about Big Pharma, the APA, and the DSM in Joel Bakan’s book, “Childhood Under Siege”
It is psychotics that kill people. They sometimes usea guns as a weapon. They go to schools because they know there are guaranteed victims and they can play out their fantasy or delusion, which is premeditated. Only protecting the children will make a difference, not only in school, on the way to and from as well. When the shepherd is watching the flock the wolf watches for strays. The problem lies in only allowing psychotics to have guns and other weapons in schools. A stun gun or long range pepper spray could also be weapons of defense in the right circumstances.
[...] Read More… [...]
No, the “gaping hole” in the reporting of this incident and others like it, is the total media blackout of information on the “other shooters” and/or suspicious people seen running away. We have no proof that Lanza or the Aurora kid killed anyone. We just have coverups and lies and a lot of baseless finger pointing at guns and medication.
I work in a children’s / adult psychiatric clinic. Did it ever dawn on anyone that these kids were medicated for a reason? There was something that brought them to a psychiatrist? I see children every day similar to these kids and I follow them closely. I have seen kids have adverse reactions where the meds do make them more aggressive, etc. I have also seen these Ned’s make a huge impact on a child life and adults get their lives back and be able to function. I have also seen nothing that will improve symptoms in some. I am by no means pro big pharma, but it takes a chemical to correct a chemical imbalance. What we need to focus on is what is causing the initial chemical. Vaccines, mothers on psychotropics, food additives, tv computers, etc. I am no expert but I know what I have seen first hand through working hands on and what I have studied. There is a Huge problem and it can’t be pinpointed to one thing, I fortunately work for a dr. Who uses meds as a last resort, we promote dietary changes, behavior modification and sometimes it helps but sometimes there is no choice to medicate, there is no hospitals in our area that we can send these kids to to get stabilized or further studying, unfortunately no one wants to deal with these children, schools states etc, it is frustrating and the numbers of children we see with these traits are increasing at a rapid rate, when I first started in this field there was one or two it was rare and made you think when you ran across a child with traits like these, now we See several daily starting at earlier ages. I feel for these parents I have seen it first hand what they go through and trying to get help when everyone wants to wash their hands of them. There is a whole generation of kids growing up with no conscience or fear of death or pain, and it starts with torturing small animals this was a horror movie about “a” kid now it reality and numerous. These problems are going to get worse until the root of the cause is found. I am not denying that the Meds you listed have those effects on some people and a good Dr. Will stop those mess immediately, but from what I see every day it starts prior to medication
There is a commonality in all of the mass shootings in the United States.
All of the killers were psychoactive medications and under the care of a psychiatrist. This should not and cannot be ignored. We should also not ignore the fact that 99% of the killers take their own lives.
All psychoactive medications work by disrupting normal brain functioning. Remember that.
We need to get control over the psychoactive medications that are handed out like candy in the United States. Doctors do this because one; it is easy; two it’s money, big money, tremendous amounts of money for them and Big Pharma.
When you see Big Pharma adds for anti-depressants on television they always add, “may cause suicidal thoughts”. They should say, “May cause you to want kill yourself AND other people.”
In Japan all psychoactive medications must contain the warning. “There is a causal relationship between taking this medication and violence.”
Yes, it is a tragedy that mainstreams media continues to turn a blind eye to the dangers of psychoactive drugging. There is conflict of interest. Pharmaceutical companies advertise in the mainstream media. You will never see mainstream media anchors reporting that psychoactive drugging is destroying lives because, in part, pharmaceutical companies in the form of advertising revenue pay them. We are talking big money here. All mainstream media will do is point their fingers at gun control taking attention away from the real problem.
In November 2012 the Supreme Court of New York awarded a $1.5 million malpractice verdict to the family of a man who committed suicide while taking psychiatric drugs. Dr. Peter Breggin of Ithaca New York was the medical expert for the plaintiffs. His website is: http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
It’s good reading.
Don’t expect congress to take action. They are afraid of their own shadow. They would never, never take on Big Pharma.
My hope is that the relatives of the dead in Newtown Connecticut will file a $500,000,000 class action lawsuit against the prescribing physician, the FDA and Novaris who manufactures Fixapt the psychoactive drug Lanza was taking. With the help of expert witnesses like Dr. Peter Breggin they can win.
Thanks for deleting my comment. Go **** yourselves.
(edited for profanity)
I can see no record of a previous comment from you. You are welcome to resubmit it.
It is sad how many more children have problems nowadays! Its the same in England as the states! Luckily its not so easy to get guns here & our schools are very secure now! It is about time people started looking into why there are more mental illnesses in the young & to try to do something about it before its an even bigger problem! It doesn’t seem fair that we are passing these problems on to the next generation! I can see mass farming as 1 big problem! Eating animals that have lived awful lives cannot be good for us!!!!