WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS

Started by peternap, March 03, 2008, 07:14:52 AM

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peternap

It's pretty easy to blame an object (the gun) for recent acts of violence. What could the truth be though. This is an interesting article about a subject I've preached over for years.....Over prescription of drugs that have unknown side effects:

http://www.american-reporter.com/3,371/12.html

The Willies:
WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS
by Joe Shea
American Reporter Correspondent
Bradenton, Fla.

Printable version of this story

BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines?

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the psychiatric community and pharmaceutical industry have been failing abjectly in their duty to warn users of medications like Prozac that violent, deadly episodes may take place when their use is halted. And soon, I believe, someone is going to ask this question: Is it worth a single human life, not to mention hundreds each year, to quell human emotions with drugs instead of curing the emotional disorder that underlies it?

Some 15 years ago, I investigated half a dozen incidents of mass murder, including one on the campus at Cal State Fullerton and the more famous Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas and found that five of the six incidents had a single thread in common: Shortly before they occurred, the killer had stopped taking medication prescribed for them by a physician, usually a psychiatrist or psychologist.

As I came upon the notations in case files, police reports and newspaper clippings, my confusion grew. Why, I asked myself, did this glaring link between mass murderers not come to the attention of a House or Senate panel, of major newspapers and the broadcast media? Sure, the fact that someone stopped taking medications is frequently mentioned in news accounts, but one instance is rarely tied to another? And why does the press fail, over so many years and so many incidents, to make the connection?

The answer, it appears, may lie with the Church of Scientology, the cult of L. Ron Hubbard followers whose adherents include high-profile celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Herbie Hancock. Their parallel investigative arm, the Hollywood-based Citizens Commission on Human Rights, has long sought to exploit the connection between halted medications and mass murder as part of its decades-long war against psychiatry. During that war, it has also taken on new enemies it believes are allies of psychiatry, namely, the major media. And in rejecting Scientology's claims about medication, I believe, the media has shot itself in the foot.

The connection is as easy to identify as it is to plug the phrase "murder and stopped taking medication" into Google; that yields 94,000 results and hundreds of different cases around the country of similar events. Where is our responsibility as journalists, and where is my government's responsibility as a regulator of pharmaceuticals, in all of this?

End part 1

These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!

peternap

#1
Here's a typical example, from a 1994 article in the daily Virginian-Pilot about a man named Lloyd S. Waters, a Suffolk, Va., man who killed a 78-year-old acquaintance. Note that the drug is not named (they rarely are) as you study the details:

    Waters, 49, who claims to be a preacher, told psychiatrists he thought Ruffin needed to die because he was spreading false prophecies. He went to Ruffin's home in the Saratoga section of Suffolk and shot him three times, later saying he did it "to make all the questions stop," according to court records.

    Ruffin and Waters worked carpentry jobs together and discussed religion, family members testified.

    Two doctors, including a state psychiatrist appointed by prosecutors, testified that Waters was legally insane at the time of the crime.

    Waters was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1970 and had been taking anti-psychosis prescription drugs. Doctors said those drugs controlled his psychotic symptoms, but Waters was known to show bizarre behavior whenever he stopped taking the drugs.

    In 1974, for instance, Waters stopped using his medication and then canceled his Social Security payments because he thought he was starting a business. A year later, when he again stopped taking the medication, Waters had to be removed from a church because he demanded to preach from the pulpit.

    Waters, while taking his medication, was able to work at Norshipco for much of the past seven years, court records show. Family members said he stopped taking the medication shortly before the slaying.

If you feel like driving a neo-conservative nuts today, ask him why the shooter in this case was any less innocent than the victim. He was certifiably insane; and the medications helped him avoid acting upon his murderous impulses. When an insane man stops taking medication, and then kills someone, is he culpable?

After all, Waters did not know that thousands of others had killed people after they stopped taking medications. He didn't know the medications were merely suppressing his impulses, not erasing them. He didn't know when he started taking the prescribed medications that stopping them would lead to a violent explosion. He didn't return to sanity when he stopped taking medications, did he?

And yes, he might have known better when he was still on them, if he was warned that violence might occur. He was apparently unfamiliar with his own emotional instrument, which had long been unavailable to him because it was suppressed - unfamiliar enough that he was clueless that murder was on his mind.

These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!


peternap

#2
A 2006 study of 52 homicides in Britain described in the <>Times of London found a clear causal link between many of the murders and halted medication, according to the British government's national director for mental health and author of the study, Prof. Louis Appleby. "government's national director for mental health, said: "We have to acknowledge how many [killings] might have been prevented had we acted earlier. Quite a lot of these cases have preventable elements. For example, 25% of patients committing homicide had stopped taking their medication.

"We looked at how many might be prevented by the community treatment orders - how many patients were detained, subsequently stopped their medication and then went out to kill someone. The answer is 16% - one in six of the 52 homicides," Appleby said. Mentally ill people kill 400 a year in Great Brotain, the study showed. The community treatment orders allow authorities to force some patients to continue taking their medication.

Treating symptoms without treating the underling cause is dangerous in itself. It's like a cut on your arm that has become gangrenous. It won't help to use a bigger and bigger Band-Aids as the infection spreads.

Schizophrenia is a complex disease, and it may have genetic origins. Many of the medications that treated it in the past had cancer-causing ingredients such as heavy salts that caused other illnesses like tardive dyskinesia, the constantly repeated gestures and movements once so common in mental hospitals. The newer generation of medications like Prozac was seen as a godsend by many in the mental health community because it eliminated these symptoms. But like its predecessors, relief from symptoms did not change the problem.

One extremely effective psychiatric treatment for emotional buildups that can erupt into violence was created specifically for stressed-out college students during the era in which college kids gave their heart and souls to the effort to halt the war in Vietnam. Dr. Eugene Gendlin of the University of Chicago called his therapy "focusing," and it allowed patients to treat themselves or to work another lay person through the anger, frustration, grief and guilt that accompanied stress.

In the practice of focusing (which was the subject of more than 50 scientific papers), the therapist first introduces the technique, which merely involves focusing on one's "center of feeling" and then waiting for the very first word, thought, image or phrase to arise spontaneously from that center. Then the patient discusses the reaction, trying to weigh his words against the emotion at the center of his feelings. Either the first time or around, or on subsequent tries (people whose minds are too busy to notice their emotions often need to try several times), there comes a personal revelation and a "felt shift," as Gendling called it, in the underlying emotion.

It is an extraordinary tool that doesn't require medication or long therapeutic encounters, and in my own case it has worked very quickly on many occasions, all but the first one or two when I was using it by myself. I learned of it while writing an article about a holistic healing center in Los Angeles.

The so-called HIPA regulations concerning patient privacy, which prevented the police chief in the NIU case from naming the medication, need to changed toallow police departments to identify the medications used by such killers, both for public dissemination and for use in epidemiological studies of these violent episodes. In addition, the FDA must establish a system that will require that users of such drugs to get strong and persistent warnings from providers, including their doctors and pharmacists, and to alert their physicians when medications are not re-ordered, are halted or are ineffective in controlling violent impulses.

It isn't necessary to embrace focusing or some other healing technique to know that medications that suppress emotions should not be taken in the absence of intensive therapy aimed at relieving the underlying pressures that build up with their use. Too many promising young people have needlessly lost their precious lives in the past year alone to prove that point.

Joe Shea is Editor-in-Chief of The American Reporter.

These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!

Sassy

Interesting article, Peter...  I see so many patients on psych medications at the VA - sometimes they are on 3-5 different types besides other meds... it amazes me.  They don't seem much better.  If you keep burying something, no amount of medication is going to help.  It is criminal that in all these killings noted in that article, the common cause was omitted or not connected with other killings...  We constantly see patients who go off their psych meds who are having problems.  Recently we had a patient go after one of the police officer's guns - he had his hand on the gun - if he'd gotten it, no telling how many might have been shot or if he would have turned it on himself....  we've had patients go after nurses with a knife, yell & cuss us out, lash out with hitting & kicking...  ER is a dangerous place, especially when you thiink that we are dealing with veterans who have been trained to kill...  lots with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who are on lots of medications, many who are homeless & on drugs or alcohol - it is a sad state of affairs. 

For me, prayer is what centers me, helps me look into myself & find the strength through God's spirit to change or do what is right...  I need lots more prayer but I'm working on it  c*
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

ScottA

The really scary part is that 20% of adult Americans take some sort of anti-depresent medication. That's an awful lot of potential mass murderers. I think the real question here is why are so many on these drugs in the first place? Has the American way of life become so unbearable that this is the only way folks can cope. Or is there something else going on here like drug companies needing ever larger profits. Or maybe it's a social experiment to see if the masses can be pacified with drugs.


Willy

The VA percribed me anti-depresent medications  a short time back to mellow me out. I told them I realy did not need or want them but they felt it was nesasary anyway. So here comes the bottle in the mail for me to take. It had a long page of problems that may develope for me to read and I did read them. It said take one a day for 3 days then step it up to two a day for 3 days so I could end up taking 3 a day for I don't know how long?? I guess if I started with 3 a day I could have a sesiure!
I decided what the heck I would try it and see if it helped. During the 3 days I took 1 a day I have been monitoring my blood pressure and noticed it was going up fast. I also noticed I had a hard time working on a ladder and looking up at the same time. On the 4th day I took 2 during the day and it realy went up and it has been weird sleeping at night having strange dreams all night long and I mean all night! On the 5th day I decided to stop cause this was not helping at all and the things they were doing to me was insane to say the least. Now I know the doctors probley would have said don't stop your body will get used to them but no way was I going to do this. Today my blood pressure went up to 221/170/86 heart rate and I am worried this may take a while to solve due to these pills messing with my body. It dropped down to 123/75 later but I have never seen it so high. I was only running my tractor not working hard? I guess they could give me another percription to bring down the blood pressure so I could take something to knock it up but it does not make sence to me. I was just upset over hearing I had cancer and they figured this would deal with it. I have to go back maybe for meds to maintain my BP at least they said so cause it goes up when they tell me things like this.  It seems to hang around the 125-140 range over 70-90 at sorta resting. I dislike being a ginny pig to try drugs on and for 20 years only took asprins for headakes once in a while. I wonder what they will try next to get me on when I go back for all these tests there going to do?? Mark

MountainDon

Mark, before going on an anti-depressant I'd make certain my nutritional intake was up to par. Vitamins, minerals, etc are sometimes overlooked. We both use them and are convinced that we feel better, physically and mentally because of them.

If it makes you feel crappy right off I don't believe it's going to get better. OMMV

I am on a BP med, but at present I'm only using one half the dose that the doc recommended. I have self reduced the dosage over the past few months and have been monitoring with my own machine that I checked against the doctors spygmometer [sp?]. At rest I run 115-122 / 70-76. On full meds three months ago it was about 5 points higher across the board. Without the meds it goes way too high. I've made a few other changes as well, but am near the end of the list.

That said, I believe it is most important to hold the BP down. There is a long enough list of serious complications that can arise from having long term high blood pressure. I believe there's a balance that can be achieved. Not everyone will agree.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

peternap

Mark....Keep an eye on the BP. You've got me worried now. That's stroke level!
These here is God's finest scupturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here!

Willy

Quote from: peternap on March 03, 2008, 06:36:39 PM
Mark....Keep an eye on the BP. You've got me worried now. That's stroke level!
I know that is what worried me so much. It did make me feel strange for most of the day but it is 144/91-67 right now. I will be seeing the doctor in a week for the test on my neck blood vessels. I will lay it on them about this. I need to get it down cause my CDL Licence also requires it to be at least 139/89 or lower. If not I am supposed to be on meds. Hope they never test me when I am mad! Mark


MountainDon

Good post Peter. Hope you don't mind my meddling and consolidating the three separate threads into one; makes it easier to follow.

I'd noticed the commonality of the meds as well. In fact I got to where any time a "psycho" killer event ocurred I'd be wondering what meds the shooter had quit taking.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Willy

Quote from: MountainDon on March 03, 2008, 08:44:06 PM
Good post Peter. Hope you don't mind my meddling and consolidating the three separate threads into one; makes it easier to follow.

I'd noticed the commonality of the meds as well. In fact I got to where any time a "psycho" killer event ocurred I'd be wondering what meds the shooter had quit taking.
Think about what I could have done with my BP up that high. I am sure if it had not come down fast it could have caused me to things that may have got me in trouble. It is scary what pills can do and there handed out like candy and TV tells you why you need them and what to say on how to get them!! Allmost seems like the thing to do is the designer pill of the month club to be cool? Mark

glenn kangiser

Hey Mark, have you tried garlic or garlic pills for the BP.  A friend of ours here dropped his BP with just garlic pills after my mom told him about it.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Willy

Quote from: glenn kangiser on March 04, 2008, 12:24:31 AM
Hey Mark, have you tried garlic or garlic pills for the BP.  A friend of ours here dropped his BP with just garlic pills after my mom told him about it.
I just stopped smoking, now only drink one small pot of coffie instead of 2-3 full pots a day. I also don't use 1 1/2 teaspoons of white sugar per cup. I now use cane sugar and just a little. All these changes are supposed to help and I just started doing them the last week or so. I could also try the garlic pills cause my wife is into vitamins and organic stuff big time. I am the one who beats his body to death!! Mark

Sassy

Willy, I'm glad you BP has come down some from that high level - that's not good...   :(  Like Glenn said, garlic helps - I had a patient who was on several types of blood pressure meds & his BP was always really high - I told him to try garlic & he ended up being able to get off all his BP meds.  How is your magnesium level?  You can take magnesium/ calcium/ vit D supplements - I take it at night (pill has all those ingredients) the magnesium especially helps me sleep better - they use magnesium drips for women who go into pre-eclampsia where their BP goes sky high when they are pregnant - it causes the muscles to relax & the BP to lower. 

You said you were diagnosed with cancer - I hope you are alright - supposedly turmeric is a great herb to fight cancer  - look it up on Google - it sounds like a wonder drug!

Cinnamon is great for helping to regulate your blood sugar & apple cider vinegar is good for lots of stuff (I buy the unpasturized, organic kind).

You sound like Glenn, I try to get him to eat healthy - have been offering him green salad (mixed organic greens) and he won't even eat any...  he will rarely take a vitamin...  and garlic pills - never!  He's pretty stubborn  ::)
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free


MountainDon

Good for you on the stopping smoking, Mark. That can do nothing but good.  :)  I used to be an inveterate pipe and cigar smoker. 25 years worth. I finally was able to quit for the final time about 15 years ago. It was difficult, but I reached the point where I don't care to light up anymore.

I try hard to limit myself to one cup of coffee a day in the morning. I parked the 10 cup Bunn coffee maker and now make one cup at a time with a Melita type filter. No sugar. I gave up sugar in coffee way back when I couldn't afford it while traipsing across Europe in the 70's. Never went back to it.

I also credit the reduction in sodium intake with helping control my BP. We basically don't add salt to anything other than a pinch in a pot of water to boil such things as pasta and potatoes.

I also am blessed or cursed with high BP genetics. My father and my mother had hypertension.

G/L

As for vitamins, etc. I would have never got into the habit on my own. I must thank my dear K. for being quietly persistent.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Sassy

yes, congrats on quitting smoking - that is one of the worst things you can do to cause elevated bp & heart problems, not to mention breathing problems & even bladder cancer & ED, ha!  I always use the ED with the young guys - they think they're really macho & nothing can hurt them but when I tell them that smoking affects ALL blood vessels & elaborate a little, they get the message...   ;)

Honey is a good sweetener - actually good for you, if you have to have something sweet in your coffee...  but you're doing the right thing in cutting back... 

You are probably feeling stressed just having quit smoking - that could raise your blood pressure, then the diagnosis... 

The psych meds - I took a very low dose of amitryptaline (sp) /Elavil for nerve pain years ago - I had crazy dreams all night & felt groggy in the morning - that was with 10 mg at bedtime - the usual dosage would be 50-150mg or more for depression - I don't see how someone would function...  anyway - you are making a lot of good changes for you health.... 
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

Willy

Well the drugs have worked there way out of my system and the blood pressure is at 125/76 now! Talked to the doctor just now and he said it was good I quit taking it when I did. He wants me to monitor it for a week and check back again. I can even jog to the mailbox and back again and not go off the chart!!I feel way better today and I bet they won't percribe those to me again! Mark

akemt

GREAT NEWS Mark!  Tell them you'll do yoga to calm down or something if they try to push drugs again and you aren't on-board with it.  Oy. 

Great article.  I also love that in children and teens all these anti-depressant meds are KNOWN to increase the risk of suicide!  Um, hello?  Adding insult to injury...  One of my best friends killed himself at 19 years old thanks to the myriad of meds they had him on for post-traumatic stress.  And guess what his method was?  The meds themselves. 

Heh, check out what the greek word for sorcery is:  "Pharmakia" from which we get the word pharmacy.  I'm not saying medicine in general doesn't have its place --I'd be dead now without it, but we're way overboard and dependant on medications and drugs, prescription or otherwise.  Personally, I'm a chocolate addict.  ;)
Catherine

Stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of 6 in "nowhere" Alaska

glenn kangiser

I try to do without meds -- don't want a record of anything that may affect my commercial drivers or pilots license, so I go over the counter or natural.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Homegrown Tomatoes

Several years back when I was still teaching, we hired a young college kid to help out with the beginning ESL lab classes.  Seemed like a nice kid, sharp, funny, and pleasant.  The group he was teaching did not speak English well enough to tell us anything was wrong.  He'd been on some meds for bipolar disorder and had gone off them, but of course, none of us KNEW he was on psych meds OR that he wasn't taking them.  He came walking into the office, right past the secretaries, and didn't speak to them when they said hello.   They assumed he must have had a rough class and was just going to the break room to turn in his attendance.  I noticed his students standing around in the hallway looking scared and whispering to one another.  The secretary went back to the book room to get something, and she opened a locker to find this young teacher standing inside there in a glazed-over state, and chanting incoherently.  She screamed for help and it ended up with campus security having to come escort him away in a straight jacket, and contacting his folks, who told us that he'd probably gone off his meds.  Afterward, I had to take over all his classes, and as the students' English improved, I asked them what had gone on in the classes while he was teaching.  At first no one wanted to speak, and when they did, the story came out a little at a time (I think he'd taught three classes before the episode in the office).  He apparently came into the room, put a Saudi flag on the floor like a rug, prostrated himself facing the words "Conversational English" on the board, and began chanting and trying to get the kids in the class to join him in his chant.  The kids didn't know what to do, and were too scared to object, so they went along.  I asked them, "Why on earth didn't you come to the office and tell them what was going on????"  One shy Indonesian girl finally said, "What we say?  Teacher strange?  We had no words to describe then!"  I am just so glad that he didn't have access to any weapons at the time... you could look in his eyes and just tell he wasn't there.  I ran into him sometime later on campus, and he was back to seeming normal.  However, our boss never did give him a job back... she just felt like it was too big a risk that he'd go off his meds again and kill someone.