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SSRIs can make kids killers

Dear Editor: How does one stop this stupidity? We are all blaming the guns. Yet three years ago Dr. Phil lamented on his show that 15 million American children were diagnosed as mentally ill and being prescribed drugs. Fifteen million and counting.

Dear Editor:

How does one stop this stupidity? We are all blaming the guns. Yet three years ago Dr. Phil lamented on his show that 15 million American children were diagnosed as mentally ill and being prescribed drugs. Fifteen million and counting. It also was reported that schools were rewarded for identifying behaviour patterns that led to a successful mental illness diagnosis and prescription.

I just downloaded an update on the last 41 severe cases of mass murder and/or suicide in the U.S. caused by children ages 11 to 22 (not including the current massacre). All were on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (antidepressant) drugs. Most of them who did not kill themselves, when interviewed, could not even remember the event at all. All of the murders and murder/ suicides had two things in common: they involved weapons and the perpetrators were on prescription drugs. Somehow the drugs aspect of these tragedies is being swept under the carpet. The focus is again on gun control and the real time bombs are left alone to fester.

How is this possible? There are a further 15,000,000 ticking time bombs in the U.S.

SSRI drugs are one of the most dangerous poisons on the planet. Nine years ago my father was diagnosed with cancer and his physician put him on Paxil and Ativan. He became delusional and unsteady requiring two ambulance trips to the hospital after serious falls. When we finally weaned him off the drugs he became coherent again. If you have ever seen someone on this crap, you will instantly understand the problem. Now imagine 15 million children on them. The problem is being set up to happen again and again and again.

The tragedy in Connecticut is heart wrenching in the extreme, but again the drugs show up. It's the drugged human who pulls the trigger, stabs the knife, wields the chainsaw and clubs the baseball bat. The guns did nothing until someone drugged the child, making his/her mind very unsound. True, no one needs to buy assault weapons, but the drugged teen will grab any weapon at his disposal. Look at the historical cases.

If no one thinks rationally, gun control mania will prevail. But the problem will not go away until the drugs are removed from the system.

Leo Vanderbyl, North Vancouver