Hot on the heels of the recent and horrific murder-suicide comes another bizarre incident. As described in the Brisbane Times, police gunned down a man who chased two foreign tourists in Brisbane's CBD. Apparently, he was known to police. Clearly the 24 year old was deranged but again I'm left to wonder. Was he on any medication? Did he recently change his medication, come off the medication he was on or experience a change in his dosage? As with the recent murders, it seems unlikely that any attention will be paid to the possible role of medication.
If someone is on antidepressants or tranquillisers, the assumption is that there is already something wrong with their brain chemistry and the medication is helping to remedy that. The medication is viewed as helping the person cope and not causing the person to flip out and attack and murder people. Of course, the pressure is on mainstream media to ignore the possibility that the medication played anything but a helping role. Imagine the furore if a news article announced that a murderer had recently been started on Setraline by his physician and that it was known that this drug had been linked to homicidal and suicidal episodes.
Even family and friends of the perpetrator, unless they've read a book like Medication Madness, may not suspect that legally prescribed medication might be the trigger for homicide or suicide. In the two cases I've referenced in this post I don't know what the situation was regarding medication. Probably I'll never know because I'm reliant on what appears in mainstream media and nothing that is critical of Big Pharma offerings is see the light of day. In the case of Rowan Baxter's murder of his children, there's a natural aversion to blaming the act on medication that he may have been taking. By all accounts he was a nasty human being but setting your children alight is such an extreme act that the role of legally prescribed medication in producing a psychotic state must be considered.
The following news article from July 2017 is relevant:
Anti-depressants have been associated with 28 reports of murder referred to the UK medicines regulator in the last three decades, according to a new BBC investigation. Murderous thoughts were also believed to be linked to the medication on 32 occasions, according to Panorama, although the possible connection does not necessarily mean the drugs caused the events. In 2016, over 40 million prescriptions were made for SSRIs, a type of anti-depressant that boosts levels of the chemical seratonin in the brain.
For the vast majority of people, the drugs are safe to take, however the programme has uncovered a number of cases of extreme violence thought to be linked to the medication. A father who strangled his 11-year-old son was among the cases thought to be linked to the drugs, the programme found. Professor Peter Tyrer, psychiatrist at Imperial College London who has been studying SSRIs, said: “You can never be quite certain with a rare side-effect whether it’s linked to a drug or not because it could be related to other things.
"But it’s happened just too frequently with this class of drug to make it random. It’s obviously related to the drug but we don’t know exactly why.” Drugs manufacturer Pfizer who developed an SSRI called sertraline said a causal link between the drug and murderous behaviour had not been proved.
Finally, this gun lobby site has a comprehensive review of the role of antidepressants in gun violence.
Cymbalta (duloxetine)
Effexor (venlafaxine)
Remeron (mirtazapine)
Symbyax (Zyprexa and Prozac combined)
Wellbutrin and Zyban (bupropion)
The older antidepressants belong to a class of compounds known as Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs) described by Wikipedia as:
... a class of medications that are used primarily as antidepressants. TCAs were discovered in the early 1950s and were marketed later in the decade.[1] They are named after their chemical structure, which contains three rings of atoms. Tetracyclic antidepressants (TeCAs), which contain four rings of atoms, are a closely related group of antidepressant compounds. Although TCAs are sometimes prescribed for depressive disorders, they have been largely replaced in clinical use in most parts of the world by newer antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (NRIs).
I was reading this article from the Mail Online dated 16th March 2019 in which the antidepressant sertraline is under discussion. The article begins:
Liam Batten was, according to his devoted family, a gentle giant with a wicked sense of humour and a prodigious talent for technology. Despite the agoraphobia and anxiety that had plagued him since 2012 and left him afraid to leave his home, the 24-year-old managed to live a relatively full life after making friends around the world through the popular YouTube video game channels he ran. He loved music and occasionally, on good days, rode his bicycle. For many months, Liam had been taking sertraline, a common antidepressant and part of a group of drugs known as SSRIs, or selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. It is among the most commonly prescribed medicines in the world and has been used for nearly 30 years to treat anxiety and depression. In July 2018, Liam had put on weight and his dose of sertraline was doubled by his GP – although it was still within the maximum recommended level. But nine days later, Liam was found dead in his bed after suffering a cardiac arrest in his sleep. There were no warning signs; Liam had no previously diagnosed heart condition or symptoms.
The following response from a "health professional" is typical and justifies the use of antidepressants on the grounds that the benefits outweigh the dangers.
With millions of people taking SSRIs, you will see incredibly rare, one-in-a-million side effects. But no drug is risk-free.
The article goes on to state that:
Sertraline has been available since 1990 and works by raising the levels of serotonin, a brain chemical linked to mood. Nearly 13 million prescriptions for the drug were dispensed in England alone in 2017 – ten times more than in 2007.
The figure of 13 million prescriptions, just for that particular brand of antidepressant, is disturbing. Wikipedia says that the drug is now generic and thus cheap. Previously, it was sold under the brand name Zoloft. As for "one-in-a-million side effects", the drugs labelling warns of:
... palpitations as a commonly reported side effect in up to one in ten people. It also says one in 100 may experience a ‘fast heartbeat’, and one in 1,000 could have a ‘heart attack, slow heartbeat, heart problem or poor circulation’.
The self-confessed odds of side effects involving the heart are clearly more than one-in-a-million. Returning to the news article, the takeaway is that antidepressants can have very serious physiological effects, even on seemingly young and physically healthy adults. The adverse psychological effects are well documented in the book Medication Madness.
The dangerous psychological effects of antidepressants came to mind in the case of the recent horrific murder in Brisbane of a mother and her three children by the children's father who committed suicide. Here is a link to an article in the Brisbane Times. The article states that:
Police investigating the murder-suicide in Camp Hill have converged on Rowan Baxter's home, a day after he killed his estranged wife, Hannah, and their three children. Detectives hope his house at Carindale, in Brisbane's east, will give Ms Baxter's family some answers over an act that "beggars belief", according to senior police.
Indeed the murders are so horrific that they are reminiscent of the types of incidents described in Medication Madness. So far there has been no mention made as to whether the children's father was on medication or not. The fact that the taking of antidepressants is so commonplace may mean that the medication is never even mentioned as a possible contributing factor in the violence. If he was taking medication for depression, then typically it will be the depression that is blamed for the violence and not the medication that may have exacerbated it. If alcohol or illegal drugs were involved as well then the waters are muddied even further.
So far there has not been any mention of medication being taken by the perpetrator. He was involved in counselling and a friend of his is reported as saying:
"Obviously the guy was suffering extreme depression and we really want to try and help men and prevent these things from happening in the future. We have got to identify the triggers that occur."
Well, if the perpetrator was taking antidepressants, then it could well be that a failure to take his medication or a change in the dosage may have been the trigger. Here is a link to a study that suggested antidepressants were linked to murders and murderous thoughts.
Thailand featured in the news yesterday when a Thai soldier ran amok in a shopping mall and started shooting, killing twenty people and injuring many more. I was interested in trying to discover if he had taken any medication recently for depression or anxiety. So far I've not been able to find any information to confirm this but my search did throw up this interesting news about ketamine and its recently approved use as an antidepressant. This post is about antidepressants and other mood-altering drugs so I've included it below:
I reason I'm looking into these types of drugs is that I'm currently reading a book by Dr. Peter Breggin called MEDICATION MADNESS: A PSYCHIATRIST EXPOSES THE DANGERS OF MOOD-ALTERING MEDICATIONS. See Figure 1.
Figure 1: front cover of Medication Madness
In the passage I'm going to quote below, Dr. Breggin describes his thoughts about why bipolar diagnoses have soared in recent years:
WHAT’S THE CAUSE OF THE INCREASED RATES of severe cases of mania? Antidepressant medications, and to a lesser extent stimulants and tranquilisers, especially Xanax, are causing the upsurge of manic episodes. In almost all the adult cases that I have evaluated in the last decade, and in every child and teenage case I have seen in my office, the manic symptoms had begun after starting antidepressants and, more occasionally, stimulants or Xanax.
In the cases in this book, none of the children and their parents, and none of the adults who were driven into mania by prescription drugs, was told by the treating doctors that he or she had a medication-induced disorder. When occasionally the drug was implicated in any way, it was portrayed as a benign agent that happened to “unmask” a preexisting, underlying bipolar disorder—a theory based not on science but on the physician’s impulse to avoid blame for the disaster.
The two men mentioned earlier in this chapter, and many others in stories to come, fit nicely into the official DSM criteria for a diagnosis of manic episode with one big exception—their reactions were drug-induced. According to the official diagnostic manual, when a drug causes a manic-like episode, it is improper to make a diagnosis of manic episode or bipolar disorder. As emphasised earlier, when a drug is the suspected cause of manic-like symptoms, the proper diagnosis is substance-induced mood disorder.
Unfortunately, this common sense and officially approved diagnostic standard is largely ignored in the practice of psychiatry. In almost every case I have evaluated, and perhaps every case in this book, the substance-induced mood disorder has been mistakenly diagnosed as bipolar disorder, laying the blame on the patient’s “mental illness” rather than on the doctor’s prescription. Like the proverbial elephant in the living room, the drug’s obvious role in producing the mania will go unmentioned in the medical record.
It is very prejudicial to the patient to be labeled with bipolar disorder rather than with a substance-induced mood disorder. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder stigmatises the victim for life as suffering from a serious and potentially recurrent “mental illness” or “psychiatric disorder.” Without any scientific basis, the diagnosis is used to push lifetime medication, and in criminal cases, it becomes a justification for lengthy incarcerations in institutions for the criminally insane. The bipolar diagnosis makes it more difficult or impossible to get health insurance or long-term care insurance.
In contrast, a proper diagnosis of substance-induced mood disorder identifies an acute neurological disorder that typically goes away after the medication is discontinued. Instead of lifetime medication, the proper diagnosis discourages further use of the offending drug. None of the dozens of individuals described in this book went on to repeat their criminal or dangerous behaviours after they were removed from the drugs.
This psychiatric approach is certainly the case for a person I know quite well who at age 37 was diagnosed as schizophrenic following his first psychotic episode. The fact that he had been drinking heavily for some time, smoking marijuana and taking (or possibly not taking) antidepressant medication prior this episode was ignored. He has remained on psychotropic medication to this day and firmly believes he is a schizophrenic. However, having worked as a psychiatric nurse for eight years and being familiar with schizophrenic behaviour, I know the diagnosis was unjustified. The long-term side-effects of the psychotropic medication have caused glaucoma and osteoporosis in this person (these possible side-effects are listed on the label of the medication he takes).
It may be of interest to recount how I stumbled upon Dr. Breggin. It was via an article on the Truthsteam Media website run by Aaron and Melissa Dykes. The article was titled "Then They Came For Your Mind: The Untold Story of Psychosurgery" and is accompanied by the following video:
It was a riveting video and so I was prompted to find out more about him. He has a YouTube channel and has written many books and published many scientific articles.
"Medication Madness" makes for disturbing reading as the unintended effects of antidepressants, hypnotics and tranquillisers becomes apparent. Statistics such as three million Australians using antidepressants defies belief (source):
Three million Australians are now reliant on antidepressants.
24/04/2019
New data from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme shows one in every eight Australians are using the drugs, including 100,000 children.
The data has prompted concerns Australia is over-diagnosing and over-treating depression.
Psychiatrist Dr Jon Jureidini, from the University of Adelaide, tells Ben Fordham too many doctors are prescribing the drug.
“The marketing of antidepressants has been extremely successful, and lots of people have been led to believe they’re better off taking the drugs.
“The safety of these drugs is often overestimated, the risks are underestimated.”
The figure of 100,000 children on antidepressants is disturbing but there are probably more children on stimulant drugs for ADHD. It's a mad, mad world when children are assaulted from an early age with vaccines, the water they drink is poisoned by fluoridation and they are zombified with medications.
A further interesting point in "Medication Madness" is the following:
Up to 10 percent of the population have a genetic lack of liver enzymes necessary for the effective breakdown of many medications, including the newer antidepressant drugs such as Prozac. These people are called “poor metabolisers.” They are more likely to suffer adverse drug reactions because the drug concentration builds up in the bloodstream when it cannot be destroyed or eliminated efficiently. If medicine were conducted on a more rational basis, all patients would be tested when possible in advance of taking psychiatric drugs—or any drugs—where there is a risk of abnormal liver metabolism affecting the treatment result. The drug companies have been reluctant to recognise this problem or to make laboratories available to perform tests for these liver enzymes.
I'll finish this post with another quote from the book which pretty much sums up everthing:
Meanwhile, it should be no surprise that the brain is not well suited to receive drugs. It lives in a delicate harmony with itself, an organ with complexity far beyond our current understanding and imagination that provides the biological basis of our humanity. It contains approximately one hundred billion neurones—nerve cells that send the chemical messages that run our brains and influence our bodies. There are more neurones in our brain than there are stars in the universe. Some of these individual neurones make ten thousand or more individual connections with other neurones. These neurones and their connections are ignited by a couple of hundred different neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine. The neurotransmitters we know best we nonetheless know little about; most of the others we know nothing about and haven’t even as yet identified.
Beyond the neurotransmitters, our brain functions are affected by assorted other kinds of support cells, many chemicals such as sodium and potassium, and various hormones. The overall brain activity generates electrical fields that reflect and influence brain function in ways no one can yet grasp. We don’t even understand the operating system of the brain—how it organises and runs itself.
Each brain is more complex than the entire physical universe of stars, galaxies, black holes, gravity, and electromagnetic fields. That is the nature of life and especially of the mammalian brain—it is complex far beyond our current understanding and far beyond anything in the inanimate physical universe.
So the next time some “expert” tries to explain a subtle manifestation of human behaviour in terms of brain function—or tries to convince you that a biochemical imbalance is at the root of your problems—you should wonder about his pecuniary motives. You should suspect that it’s in the expert’s interest to convince you that you’re a much simpler biological organism than you are.
A principle to remember:Tampering with the human brain to influence human emotions and actions is not a good idea.the
