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Information

The first section outlines research on Antipsychotic medications and causing death.  The second section outlines research on multiple psychiatric medications causing and increasing the suicide rate.

Section 1

Anti-psychotic Usage Appears to Increases Mortality and Dementia

People diagnosed with a mental illness tend to have shortened life spans, often dying decades prior to people undiagnosed, and researchers have offered numerous reasons why this may be true.[1] [2] [3] [4]

However, more recently researchers followed 99 people for 17 years, and usage of even one neuroleptic drug increased the risk of dying by 3 fold (35% actually died within the 17 years), 2 neuroleptic drugs caused 44% of them to die, and 3 neuroleptics increased the risk of dying in 17 years by 7 fold, whereby, 57% died.  The relative risk of mortality, relative to normal healthy controls was:
             zero neuroleptic (NL) at baseline      1.29 (small increase for patient Vs non-patient)
             1 NL                                                   2.97 times more likely to die if you take 1 NL drug
             2 NL                                                   3.21 times more likely to die if you take 2 NL drugs
             3 NL                                                   6.83 time more likely to die if you take 3 NL drugs

So if you have 1,000 people who do not take an anti-psychotic drug, and you track them over 17 years, and lets say 10 people die, then you can predict that if you had another 1,000 people taking a neuroleptic anti-psychotic drug, like the ones now being often used for sleep disorders, dementia and to curb agitation/aggression, one could generalize that about 30 people will die (2.97 times more) due to the psychiatric medication. If they took three over the course of the years, you would almost 70 people die as a result of the medication. ([5])

Additionally, researchers conducted the largest study ever to address suicide in treated psychotic patients with and without the usage of psychotropic medications, and indicated there was approximately a 20 fold increase in suicide rates for patients treated in modern period where there were psychiatric medications were used. ([6])

Further, an eleven month study compared typical hospital treatment with pure psychological treatment, noting the most severe cases went to the psychological treatment without medication group, and found that there were no suicide attempts, elopements or other significant acts of violence in the psycho-social treatment group; however, typical hospital psychiatric drug group with a higher staffed ward had 3 suicides. ([7])

Overall mortality occurs highest as a partial result of anti-psychotic drug induced Tardive Dyskinesia, and sudden death has been reported as a serious adverse effect of taking anti-psychotic medications. ([8], [9]) 

Other studies that have also found patients who take anti-psychotic medications dying at an earlier age than their counterparts who choose not to use psychiatric medications include:

a) A survey of 49 sudden death cases associated with the use of antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs, whereby the antipsychotic class of drugs phenothiazines caused disturbances of the cardiac rhythm. This study showed that in 46 of the 49 cases of sudden death reported in users of antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs, individuals were taking therapeutic doses of phenothiazines, which consisted of the drug thioridazine in over half the cases. The high representation of this class of drugs in individuals with sudden death is indicative of a causal association.[10]

b) In a study of Irish patients, 25 of 72 patients (35%) died over a period of 7.5 years, leading the researchers to conclude that the risk of death for these patients had “doubled” since the introduction of the atypical antipsychotics. [11]

c) Researchers who followed a cohort of 88 patients, ages 25 to 89, over a 10-year period, and noted that 39 of them died over the period. Reduced survival was associated with the administration of two or more anti-psychotics at the same time. The researchers further indicated that patients who were kept on the psychiatric drugs became so burdened with chronic physical illnesses, these replaced the "psychiatric disorder as the primary focus of medical care." The final pathway to early death was global medical decline and death from respiratory illness.[12]

d) Researchers working with the Veteran’s Administration in Ann Arbor, MI, did a retrospective study, reviewing records from 2001 to 2005, and found that patients given anti-psychotic medications following a dementia diagnosis (N=10,615) had a significantly greater likelihood of dying over a 12 month period than other diagnosed patients that did not use anti-psychotic medications (23-29% dying).  When patients were given alternative psychiatric medications, this rate of mortality dropped to 15%. 

Historically, neuropsychiatric symptoms are present in more than 80% of persons with dementia[13], and they are associated with more hospitalizations, nursing home placement, caregiver stress, and depression and with less caregiver employment and income [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]. Such symptoms may be more critical to institutionalization than cognitive symptoms [20], accounting for up to one-third of the costs for care of Alzheimer’s dementia [21].  Research examining treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia is modest, and no medication is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for this indication. Nevertheless, conventional antipsychotics have long been used to treat neuropsychiatric symptoms. Following the introduction of atypical antipsychotics, with lower reported rates of causing parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia presentations, there was a significant shift from the use of conventionals to atypicals [22] [23].

That research has more recently now come into question, as researchers in 2015 found that people with Parkinson disease psychosis that were treated with antipsychotics were four times (400% increase) more likely to have died following three to six months of treatment than those who did not receive any antipsychotic medication[24]. They were also more likely to experience serious health issues including cognitive decline, worsening of Parkinson's symptoms, stroke, infections and falls.  The lead researcher indicated “Our findings clearly indicate serious risks associated with antipsychotics…” , noted doctors need to use greater caution, and indicated these findings are similar in that “antipsychotics are known to be linked to serious harm in people with Alzheimer's Disease…”[25].

Modest reductions of neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia had been reported with risperidone and olanzapine [26] [27] [28] [29] [30], although results from the recently published Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness—Alzheimer’s Disease (CATIE-AD), one of the largest studies ever conducted, indicate that response rates with olanzapine, risperidone, and quetiapine are not significantly different from the rates with placebo [31].

In 2005, the FDA issued a warning [32] that, among elderly patients with dementia, the treatment of behavioral disorders with atypical antipsychotics was associated with a higher mortality rate. Of 17 placebo-controlled trials with olanzapine, aripiprazole, risperidone, or quetiapine in patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, 15 showed greater mortality (approximately 1.7-fold). Specific causes of deaths were mostly cardiac related or infections. The FDA noted that a warning for conventional antipsychotics was being considered because the limited available data suggested a similarly higher mortality risk. This concern was confirmed by a meta-analysis by Schneider et al. of data from trials of atypicals that included ad hoc haloperidol analyses showing a relative mortality risk of 2.07 [33] and by a study [34] demonstrating that mortality risks with conventional antipsychotics were higher than with atypicals in elderly patients. A recent reanalysis of olanzapine trial data found no significant differences in mortality between olanzapine and risperidone and between olanzapine and conventionals [35].

In Conclusion

There is growing evidence that anti-psychotic and other psychiatric medication usage causes severe and persistent general decline, which often can lead to premature death.  In turn, researchers have documented how such medication usage has directly increased rates of mental health disability, with a direct causal relationship between number of medications, doses of medication and future impairment and mental health decline and disability.[36]  Analysis of the neurological research on the brain can and does account for why this general decline occurs, and I would be happy to further explain why we see such an increase in mortality and mental health disability with the use of these medicines.


[1] Goldman LS. (1999). Medical illness in patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60: 10-15

[2] Babidge N, Buhrich N, Butler T. (2001). Mortality among homeless people with schizophrenia in Sydney, Australia: a 10-year follow-up. Acta Psychiatr Scand; 103: 105-110.

[3] Brown S, Inskip H, Barraclough B. (2000).  Causes of the excess mortality of schizophrenia.  British Journal of Psychiatr, 177: 212-217.

[4] Lawrence D, Jablensky A, Holman C, Pinder T. (2000). Mortality in Western Australian psychiatric patients. Psychiatry Epidemiology, 35: 341-347.

[5] Joukamaa, M., Heliova, M., Knekt, P. at el. (2006). Schizophrenia, neuroleptic medication and mortality, British Journal of Psychiatry, 188: 22-127.

[6] Healy, D. Harris, M. at el. (2006) Lifetime suicide rates in treated schizophrenia: 1875-1924 and 1994-1998, British Journal of Psychiatry, 18, 8, p. 223-228. http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/188/3/223

[7] Diekman, A., and Whitaker, L. (1979). "Humanizing the Psychotherapy ward: Changing from drugs to psychotherapy."  Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. 16 (2):204-214.

[8] Ballesteroa J, Gonzales-Pinto A, & Bulbena (2000). Tardive Dyskinesia Associated with Higher Mortality in Psychiatric Patients: Results of a Meta- analysis. American Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 20:188-98

[9] Appleby L, Thomas S, Ferrier N, et. al. (2000).  Sudden unexplained deaths in psychiatric in-patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 176:405-6

[10] Mehtonen OP; Aranko K; Malkonen L; Vapaatalo H. (1991).  A survey of sudden death associated with the use of antipsychotic or antidepressant druge: 49 cases in Finland. Acta Psychiatr Scand, 84(1):58-64.

[11] Morgan, M, et al. (2003). Prospective analysis of premature morbidity in schizophrenia in relation to health service engagement. Psychiatry Research 117:127-35.

[12]  Waddington, J.. (1998). Mortality in Schizophrenia.  British Journal of Psychiatry, 173 :325-329. 

[13] Lyketsos CG, Lopez O, Jones B, Fitzpatrick AL, Breitner J, DeKosky S: Prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia and mild cognitive impairment: results from the Cardiovascular Health Study. JAMA 2002; 288:1475–1483.

[14] Coen RF, Swanick GR, O’Boyle CA, Coakley D: Behavioral disturbance and other predictors of carer burden in Alzheimer’s disease. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 1997; 12:331–336

[15] Devanand DP, Marder K, Michaels KS, Sackeim HA, Bell K, Sullivan MA, Cooper TB, Pelton GH, Mayeux R: A randomized, placebo-controlled dose-comparison trial of haloperidol for psychosis and disruptive behaviors in Alzheimer’s disease. Am J Psychiatry 1998; 155:1512–1520

[16] Covinsky KE, Eng C, Lui LY, Sands LP, Sehgal AR, Walter LC, Wieland D, Eleazer GP, Yaffe K: Reduced employment in caregivers of frail elders: impact of ethnicity, patient clinical characteristics, and caregiver characteristics. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2001; 56:M707–M713

[17] Wancata J, Windhaber J, Krautgartner M, Alexandrowicz R: The consequences of non-cognitive symptoms of dementia in medical hospital departments. Int J Psychiatr Med 2003; 33:257–271

[18] Steele C, Rovner B, Chase GA, Folstein M: Psychiatric symptoms and nursing home placement of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1049–1051

[19] Kales HC, Chen PJ, Blow FC, Welsh DE, Mellow AM: Rates of clinical depression diagnosis, functional impairment and nursing home placement in coexisting dementia and depression. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2005; 13:441–449

[20] Kales HC, Chen PJ, Blow FC, Welsh DE, Mellow AM: Rates of clinical depression diagnosis, functional impairment and nursing home placement in coexisting dementia and depression. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2005; 13:441–449

[21] Beeri MS, Werner P, Davidson M, Noy S: The cost of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia in community dwelling Alzheimer’s disease patients. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2002; 17:403–408

[22] Lopez OL, Becker JT, Sweet RA, Klunk W, Kaufer DI, Saxton J, DeKosky ST: Patterns of change in the treatment of psychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease from 1983 to 2000. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2003; 15:67–73

[23] Rapoport M, Mamdani M, Shulman KI, Herrmann N, Rochon PA: Antipsychotic use in the elderly: shifting trends and increasing costs. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2005; 20:749–753

[24] Clive Ballard, Stuart Isaacson, Roger Mills, Hilde Williams, Anne Corbett, Bruce Coate, Rajesh Pahwa, Olivier

Rascol, David J. Burn. Impact of Current Antipsychotic Medications on Comparative Mortality and Adverse Events in People With Parkinson Disease Psychosis.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2015; DOI:10.1016/j.jamda.2015.06.021

[25]King's College London. "Antipsychotics increase risk of death in people with Parkinson's disease psychosis." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 September 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150930140141.htm>.

[26] Katz IR, Jeste DV, Mintzer JE, Clyde C, Napolitano J, Brecher M: Comparison of risperidone and placebo for psychosis and behavioral disturbances associated with dementia: a randomized double-blind trial: Risperidone Study Group. J Clin Psychiatry 1999; 60:107–115

[27] De Deyn PP, Rabheru K, Rasmussen A, Bocksberger JP, Dautzenberg PL, Eriksson S, Lawlor BA: A randomized trial of risperidone, placebo, and haloperidol for behavioral symptoms of dementia. Neurology 1999; 53:946–955

[28] Street JS, Clark WS, Gannon KS, Cummings JL, Bymaster FP, Tamura RN, Mitan SJ, Kadam DL, Sanger TM, Feldman PD, Tollefson GD, Breier A: Olanzapine treatment of psychotic and behavioral symptoms in patients with Alzheimer disease in nursing home care facilities: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2000; 57:968–976

[29] Brodaty H, Ames D, Snowdon J, Woodward M, Kirwan J, Clarnette R, Lee E, Lyons B, Grossman F: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of risperidone for the treatment of aggression, agitation, and psychosis of dementia. J Clin Psychiatry 2003; 64:134–143

[30] De Deyn PP, Carrasco MM, Deberdt W, Jeandel C, Hay DP, Feldman PD, Young CA, Lehman DL, Breier A: Olanzapine versus placebo in the treatment of psychosis with or without associated behavioral disturbances in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2004; 19:115–126

[31] Schneider LS, Tariot PN, Dagerman KS, Davis SM, Hsiao JK, Ismail MS, Lebowitz BD, Lyketsos CG, Ryan JM, Stroup TS, Sultzer DL, Weintraub D, Lieberman JA: Effectiveness of atypical antipsychotic drugs in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. N Engl J Med 2006; 355:1525–1538

[32] Food and Drug Administration: FDA Public Health Advisory: Deaths With Antipsychotics in Elderly Patients With Behavioral Disturbances. Washington, DC, FDA, April 11, 2005 (http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/advisory/antipsychotics.htm)

[33] Schneider LS, Dagerman KS, Insel P: Risk of death with atypical antipsychotic drug treatment for dementia: meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials. JAMA 2005; 294:1934–1943

[34] Wang PS, Schneeweiss S, Avorn J, Fischer MA, Mogun H, Solomon DH, Brookhart MA: Risk of death in elderly users of conventional vs atypical antipsychotic medications. N Engl J Med 2005; 353:2335–2341

[35] Lopez OL, Becker JT, Sweet RA, Klunk W, Kaufer DI, Saxton J, DeKosky ST: Patterns of change in the treatment of psychiatric symptoms in patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease from 1983 to 2000. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2003; 15:67–73

[36] Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs, and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America. New York: Crown Publishers.

Section 2

Despite the US spending approximately 200 Billion dollars per year on mental health,[5] and 1 in 6 Americans are taking at least one psychiatric drug.[6] The US spends more than any country on the planet for mental health, and more on mental health than any other true medical speciality[7]. Researchers found that 9 out of 10 people who come into a doctor’s office for any mental issue is given a psychiatric drug prescription, and only 10% of discharged patients get in front of a mental health specialist. [8]  In 2006, psychiatrists 60% of the time prescribed two psychiatric drugs, and 33% of the time they prescribed 3 psychiatric drugs. [9]  This initial visit to a doctors office comes following the dozens of screening days, events and measures used today.

Dr. Allen Frances, the Chairperson of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), once called the most important psychiatrist in the world, stated in his new book, “Saving Normal”: Screening devices used scare tactics in order to increase profits, and that it is often not good for people...Screening in general does not improve outcomes, but it burdens people financially with aggressive, expensive unnecessary medical treatments, whereby, billions of dollars are being spent…Mental illness is a “terribly misleading because the diagnosis is no more than descriptions of what we observe people do or say, not established diseases.”

Dr. Thomas Insel, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the largest funding agency for research in the world, made it clear they would no longer use the DSM, because the DSM is at best, a “dictionary” simply defining things, and the mental disorder labels “lack validity because they do not have any objective laboratory measure.”

Research has consistently shown that people suffering with mental disorders in general are not more violent than the general public, but there are certain things that cause people to become more violent and suicidal.[10]

We all know poverty and unemployment[11], physical punishment[12] [13], verbal abuse[14], sexual abuse, childhood trauma[15], and exposure to violence are can increase future violence and suicide, but, until recently people have pretty much ignored psychiatric medications as a causal factor for causing an increase in violence, homicide and suicide. 

My colleague Professor Gotzsche, the Director of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, reviewed 70 controlled trials, with more than 18,000 people, and found that if your under 18 years old, taking an antidepressant increased the rate of suicide violence by 200%.[16] 

Researchers Moore and Glenmullen in 2010 found a disproportionate number of violent acts reported to the FDA for psychiatric medications.[17]  In the approximate year and a half sample where doctors reported to the FDA negative effects from drugs, the researchers identified 484 drugs causing severe violence, 31 drugs accounted for the vast majority of all of the cases.

Of the 31, eleven were the most widely used antidepressants, 6 were sleep aids and antianxiety drugs, and 3 were the common stimulants given to children for ADHD. Over 67% of the 400 homicides, 400 assaults, 223 cases of “other violence” and the nearly 900 reports of homicidal ideation where the patient felt they wanted to kill someone, all of these were linked to starting a psychiatric medication.

Keep in mind, this did not include the actual completed suicides, a violence-homicide to oneself. The researchers noted these cases only represented a few percent of the actual cases out there.

If you multiply the numbers, there are hundreds of thousands of acts of violence, suicide, and thousands of homicides, linked to taking psychiatric drugs.

In 1979, 3 different researchers published articles noting how psychiatric medications were increasing violence and aggression. The first researchers noticing psychiatric drugs increasing violence was performed at Queen’s University in Kingston Canada. 

They tracked 375 prison inmates who began taking a psychiatric medication, and found a 250% to 1,000% increase in violence that was “clearly tied to the taking of psychotropic drugs”.[18]

Another researcher noted to their surprise that discharged patients prior the access and use of psychiatric drugs, in 1955, they had lower aggression than patients discharged after having psychiatric medications available.[19] 

Lastly in 1979, a third researcher conducted a controlled study over an eleven month period, whereby they randomized people into typical drug treatment group and a pure psychotherapy group.  The pure psychotherapy group had no suicides or significant acts of aggression, but the psychiatric drug group had 3 suicides and more acts of aggression.[20]

Other controlled studies showing an increase in suicide includes when Prozac was introduced to the market in the 1980s.  Eli Lilly’s own controlled clinical trials showed that Prozac increased the rate of suicidal ideation and actual suicide homicide by a 600-1,200%.[21]   Prozac alone carries 8 drug regulatory agency warnings and studies citing side effects of violence, aggression, mania, or hostility.  Eli Lilly never made this public, and it only became really publicly known after Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin wrote a book called Talk Back to Prozac and appeared before the US Veterans Affairs Committee in 2010.

As a result of the FDA becoming aware of many psychiatric medications causing suicidal ideation and suicide, they added something called Black Box Warning Label to certain psychiatric medications.  The Black Box Warning Labels are a very serious and special warning label that basically states in the label, it has been found that the psychiatric medication causes:

Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, hostility, irritability, insomnia, aggressiveness, impulsivity, mania and hypomania and akathisia.  Akathisia is a horrible inner agitation and you feel like you want to crawl out of your skin.

The DSM and researchers have stated akathisia causes suicide violence[22] and was formally recognized in the late 1970’s[23] and later supported in the 1980’s with the introduction of the first SSRI (e.g. Prozac).[24] 

 These warnings are often not highlighted to patients and their families, and risks are minimized. 

The violence and suicide increase by taking psychiatric medications has been known for decades and the FDA label demonstrates a known causal relationship. To highlight this point, please consider the following:

 Researcher Aursnes, in 2005, looked at 16 placebo clinical trials, where Paxil was randomized and compared to placebo. They found increase in suicide.

Fergussen in 2005 looked at 702 randomized clinical trials with 87,000 patients, and found psychiatric medication increased suicide thoughts and behavior.[25]

Donovan in 1999 found 229 completed suicides, and higher rates of suicide with antidepressant usage.[26]

Donivan that next year found 2,776 consecutive cases of deliberate harm and violence in 17 year olds to adults, whereby they were seen at the emergency room.  They found the suicide rate increased when they took anti-depressants. [27]

Jick in 1995 did an epidemiological study with 172,000 participants, and found that Prozac resulted in more suicides than older antidepressants.[28]

Researcher Frankenfield looked at corners reports in Maryland, and he found that people taking Prozac and the newer SSRI antidepressants had more violent suicides than before their introduction to the market.[29]

GlaxoSmithKline was asked by the FDA to do a meta-analysis of the studies on Paxil, and in 2006 they noted an increase in suicides by all people taking Paxil.  As a result, they had to send a letter to all the doctors in the US letting them know it caused people to become suicidal and violent.[30]

Valenstein in 2009 did a retrospective study in the veterans administration and looked at 887,000 patients treated with antidepressants, and found a 200% increase in completed suicides with the start of using those psychiatric medication.[31] 

Jururink in 2006 reviewed over 1000 cases of suicide in the elderly, and when given an antidepressant, there was a 500% increase in suicide after starting the psychiatric medication.[32]

Preda in 2001 found that 8.1% of psychiatric admissions were due to antidepressant induced mania.[33]  Please note that mania is whereby a person does not sleep or only sleeps for a few hours.  Mania is huge bouts of energy, whereby, the person does not think clearly, might engage in high risk taking behaviors and can become delusional and psychotic.  Mania is well known to play a causal role to suicide and violence. 

Morishita in 2003 conducted a retrospective review of 79 patients treated for depression with Paxil.  Morishita found that 8.6% developed hypomania or mania.[34]

Howland in 1996 found 6% had psychiatric drug induced mania.[35] 

Ebert in 1997 found 17% of the patients developed hypomania and became suicidal and dangerous.[36]

A Harvard Medical School study by Wilens in 2003 found that 22% of the participants developed severe adverse psychiatric events and disturbances of their mood.[37]

To again show causality, another researcher conducted a “Rechallenge” study.  This type of study is where the researcher adds a drug, sees a problem so they take the drug away, sees the problem go away, but then reintroduces they drug again to see if the negative result happens again. This type of study is very good for showing causality.  Re-exposure to antidepressant drugs lead to 44% of the people again becoming disturbed with irritability, anxiety, mania and insomnia, and 4% became aggressive and violent.  Healy in 2006 evaluated controlled clinical trial data for Paxil (GlaxoSmithKline), and found an increased rate of aggression.[38]

This causation is leading the courts, researchers and governments to recognize the dangers to these medications.  In 2016, a California court decided to drop attempted murder charges when the court heard psychiatric testimony on how medications cause an elderly man to use a meat cleaver upon his wife.[39]   In 2011, a Winnipeg Canadian judge agreed that Prozac made an individual become murderous due to the manic, suicidal and violent effects of the drug. This was in result to a 16 year old violently stabbing his friend to death.[40]

Sanji Gupta noted a few years ago on CNN, and in response to a mass shooting: “it's worth pointing out, over a seven-year period, there were 11,000 episodes of violence related to drug side effects.”

In 2015, researchers showed that young adults up to age 24 were nearly 50 percent more likely to be convicted of a homicide, assault, robbery, arson, kidnapping, sexual offense and other violent crime when taking antidepressants than when they weren’t taking the psychiatric drug.[41]

US Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, publicly stated that psychiatric drugs probably contributed to the Columbine school Mass shootings and murder.  Such research and mainstream comments have now led to several documentary movies, such as the United Kingdom movie “Prescription for Murder”, whereby they note the link between psychiatric medications causing murder. 

In conclusion, there are a host of controlled clinical trials, epidemiological studies and overwhelming clinical reports mounting and showing how psychiatric medications are leading to an increase in suicide, violence homicide, and overall aggression.  There are 27 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs, citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and homicidal ideation.[42]  Despite warning labels, from 1999-2013, psychiatric medications increased by over 117%, concurrent with a 240% increase in death rates from those medications.[43] 

Whereas blaming medications for suicide and violence would have been like saying umbrellas cause rain, we now have the above controlled data, and 3 large meta-analysis studies showing that more psychiatric treatment equates with more suicide-violence[44] [45] [46], even if a healthy volunteer without a psychiatric disorder takes these psychiatric medications.[47] [48]


[5]https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/highest-health-costs-mental_us_574302b8e4b045cc9a716371 Accessed 11-18-17.

[6]Moore TJ, Mattison DR. (2016). Adult utilization of psychiatric drugs and differences by sex, age, and race. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(2), 274-275 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2592697. Accessed 11-18-17

[7] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-healthcare-comparison-20170715-htmlstory.html

[8] Carnahan, 2002; Cummings, 2006.

[9] https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2010/mojtabai-psych-drugs.html. Accessed 11-19-17

[10] http://www.drtobywatson.com/violence-prediction.html. Accessed 11-19-17

[11] Gilligan, J. (1996). Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic. New York: Vintage Books.

[12] Corporal Punishment and other formative experiences associated with violent crimes. The Journal of Psychohistory, 35(1), pp. 71-82.

[13] Lansford J.E., Chang, L., Dodge, K.A., Malone, P.S., Oburu, P., Palmacrus, K., Bacchini, D., Pastorelli, C., Bombi, A.S., Zelli, A., Tapanya, S., Chaudhary, N., Deater-Deckard, K., Manke, B., & Quinn, N. (2005). Physical discipline and children's adjustment: Cultural normativeness as a moderator. Child Development, 76 (6), pp. 1234-1246

[14] Choi, J., Jeong, B., Rohan, M.L., Polcari, A.M., & Teicher, M.H. (2009). Preliminary evidence of white tract matter abnormalities in young adults exposed to parental verbal abuse. Biological Psychiatry 65(3), 227-234

[15] Anda, R.F., Felitti, V.J., Bremner, D.J., Walker,J.D., Whitefield, C., Perry, B.D., Dube, S.R., & Giles, W. (2006). The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood: A convergence of evidence from neurobiology and epidemiology. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 256, pp.174-186.

[16] http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i65. Accessed 11-19-17

[17] Moore TJ, Glenmullen J, Furberg CD (2010) Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15337. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015337

[18] Workman, D.G., Cunningham, D.G., (1975). “Psychotropic Drugs on Aggression in a Prison Setting” In Canadian Family Physician, pp. 63-64.  Queen's University, Kingston.

[19] Rabkin, J.1979, Criminal Behavior of Discharged Mental Patients, Psychological Bulletin, 86, 1-27. 

[20] Diekman, A., and Whitaker, L. (1979). Humanizing the Psychotherapy ward: Changing from drugs to psychotherapy.  Psychotherapy:Theory, Research, and Practice. 16 (2):204-214.  

[21] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBJfZtB_3cc

[22] Crowner ML, et al (1990)  HYPERLINK "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1973544" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1973544

[23] GB. Leong, M.D. and JA Silva, M.D. (2003)
HYPERLINK "http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/JFS/PDF/vol_48/iss_1/JFS2002173_481.pdf" http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/JFS/PDF/vol_48/iss_1/JFS2002173_481.pdf

[24] Talking back to prozac: What doctors aren't telling you about today's most controversial drug. Von P. R. Breggin und G. Ross Breggin. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1994. 273 S., geb. 19.95 $. – ISBN 0-312-11486-9

[25] Fergusson, D., Doucette, S., Glass, K., Shapiro, S., Healy, D., Hebert, P., et al. (2005). Association between suicide attempts and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials. British Medical Journal, 330, 396 – 403.

[26] Donovan, S., Kelleher, M., Lambourn, J., & Foster, T. (1999). The occurrence of suicide following the prescription of antidepressant drugs. Archives of Suicide Research, 5, 181–192.

[27] Donovan, S., Clayton, A., Beeharry, M., Jones, S., Kirk, C., Waters, K., et al. (2000). Deliberate self-harm and antidepressant drugs: Investigation of a possible link. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 551–556.

[28] Jick, S., Dean, A., & Jick, H. (1995). Antidepressants and suicide. British Medical Journal, 310, 215 – 218.

[29] Frankenfi eld, D., Baker, S. Lange, W., Caplan, Y., & Smialek, J. (1994). Fluoxetine and violent death in Maryland. Forensic Science International, 64, 107–117.

[30] GlaxoSmithKline. (2006, May). Dear Healthcare Professional: Important prescribing information [regarding Paxil-induced suicidality]. Philadelphia: Author.

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