Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to school shootings
RxISK.org, the first free independent website for researching and reporting prescription drug side effects, interviewed Dr. David Healy, co-founder of RxISK.org, on the connection between school shootings and prescription drugs. In the video, Dr. Healy explains how prescription drugs can lead to school shootings, and what can be done to help solve this problem.
A person who commits a school shooting is usually regarded as the perpetrator, but this may be a mistake, according to Dr. Healy, a world-renowned psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist. Dr. Healy has acted as an expert witness in high-profile trials where violent acts and prescription drugs were linked, and says the school shooter is often the victim too—the victim of a prescription drug.
About 90 per cent of school shooters in North America and Europe were being treated with a prescription drug, according to Dr. Healy, usually an antidepressant or mood stabilizer. For as many as one in five people, these drugs can “make you more anxious and more agitated.” This includes developing thoughts of harming yourself or others.
Critics often argue that untreated mental illness is the cause of these violent acts, but this isn’t the case, according to Dr. Healy. “Almost all of them are on treatment.”
Dr. Healy says the public doesn’t hear about the connection between prescription drugs and violent events, such as school shootings, because “regulators look for any other possible reason why this could have happened.”
“They will not blame the drug. Nor will the [pharmaceutical] company, nor will any of the academics that are linked to the company… but we have compelling evidence that these drugs can cause the problem.”
Dr. Healy encourages people to visit RxISK.org if they believe they, or someone they know, are experiencing prescription-drug-induced violence. Here, they can discover whether others experienced the same side effect, while on the same prescription drug.
“It becomes a lot easier to believe that the drug has caused you the problem if you become aware that there are hundreds of people who have [experienced] the same thing on the drug you are on.”
[The video is no longer available at https://player.vimeo.com/video/58229519]
About Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd.
RxISK.org is owned and operated by Data Based Medicine Americas Ltd. (DBM), based in Toronto, Canada. DBM’s founders have international reputations in early drug-side-effect detection and risk mitigation, pharmacovigilance, and patient-centered care. Although drug side effects are known to be a leading cause of death and disability, less than 5% of serious drug side effects are reported. DBM’s mission is to capture this missing data directly from patients through RxISK’s free drug side effect reporting tool and use this data to help make medicines safer for all of us.
Karen McCumber says
Thank you for your website! I am very grateful for lay persons to be able to easily see the truth about what is happening with drugs we take and for a way for people to record what is happening in our experience with various drugs. I am particularly grateful for the work on psychotropic drugs and the violence in our world. Thank you, again.
Darlene Snyder says
My very intelligent, loving, sensitive grandson was put on Concerto for ADHD. I did not see any signs of ADHD when he stayed me for 3 weeks in the summer for many years. Nor did his grandfather and my other children. I have experience as the oldest of 13, mother of 7, foster mother to more than 60 children and a babysitter. I argued with his parents and paternal grandmother to no avail. This boy had many questions, interests in science, religion, etc. I felt he was gifted and his needs were not being met. His dosage was increased to 60 mg a day. When I saw him he was a zombie, developed hand and facial tics, developed rages, lost his appetite and had hallucinations. He told me he was afraid of the meds and wanted to live with me. His parents refused our request that he live with his grandfather and me. He is now 16 and on weed, heroine, and using inhalants. He was found unconscious 4x after using inhalants. He is now in a drug rehab, court ordered.
As a foster mother I had a boy whose mother had him on Ritalin. While he was in my home he did not take this drug. He was a normal boy!
Thank you for this website! I needed to say this. My heart in broken!
Alex Scott says
I’m not convinced that 90% Of school shooters in north america and europe where being treated with a psychiatric medication at the time of the shooting. Does somebody have a citation to the reaserch to prove this point? Does anybody have emprical evidence to back this up? If this is false then this is highly irreposible fear mongering, ad quite frankly is shameful. Please, sombody send me some evidence to back up this claim to alex.d.a.scott@gmail.com and I will happily look into it.
David R. Chenault says
Instead of taking a scientific approach to this question, as has Dr. Healy, let’s instead rely on good, old-fashioned emotion and hysteria. (Whoops, that’s already being done by the media, any grieving parent they can traumatize with a foot-long lens, Big Pharma, the left-wing in government, etc.) I.e., let’s do what the organized protesters are doing today (02-17-2018), and circle the wagons around the NRA’s headquarters, demanding the banning of the AR-15 “assault” rifle (which it isn’t). Then, if the next murderer uses a 9mm handgun, we can ban that, too, etc., etc. The one kicker that clears the air for me is Kirstie Alley, last year, when everybody got after her for essentially saying what Dr. Healy has herein proffered. But she came back at her detractors by pointing out that NO school shootings ever occurred before the 1980s. By coincidence, I guess, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), under a brand name, were approved by the FDA in 1987. But, hey, guns are so much more fun to go after, aren’t they? Karl Marx would have. In fact, Adolf Hitler did.
Anna says
Not true there was no shooting before 1980s