In September 2009 a Winnipeg, Canada 16-year-old boy stabbed a friend to death. The teen, who had no criminal record, had been prescribed Prozac three months prior to the slaying.
The teen’s parents complained he was getting worse while taking the drug, only to have his doctor increase the dosage. He went from a loving, happy-go-lucky kid to a dark, depressed drug abuser. He began to act out violently and even tried to harm himself on several occasions.
Provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs cited the teen’s use of Prozac at the time of the slaying as a major factor. In a ruling given November 4, 2011 he said, “His basic normalcy now further confirms he no longer poses a risk of violence to anyone and that his mental deterioration and resulting violence would not have taken place without exposure to Prozac. …(Prozac) clearly affected his behaviour in an alarming way. He was simply not the same person.”
Violence and suicide are but two of the horrific side effects of Prozac and similar psychiatric drugs.
Watch the documentary Dead Wrong – How psychiatric drugs can kill your child featuring mothers who work alongside CCHR to expose the lethal risks of prescribing psychiatric drugs to kids.
Watch a short 5-minute introduction to the documentary here.
Do psychiatric drugs actually help in any way? Find out here.
A few things to think consider:
1. If you examine the research pertaining to murder and suicide, the data indicates (e.g., Role of Antidepressants in Murder and Suicide KENNETH TARDIFF, M.D., M.P.H.; PETER M. MARZUK, M.D.; ANDREW C. LEON, PH.D. Am J Psychiatry 2002;159:1248-1249), individuals taking antidepressants are less likely to engage in such acts when compared to the general population.
2. Correlations does not imply causality. Just because two things are associated does not mean one causes the other. For example, the rate of drowning in the U.S. is higher in the Summer than any other season. People eat more ice cream during the Sumer. Does ice cream CAUSE drowning? Obviously, this is not the case; nonetheless, the correlation exists.
3. Parents often do NOT know if a teen is taking drugs, or if they do, when it actually started. I would not rule out that the teen may have been taking drugs earlier than the parents reported. Also, several substances that are abused, such as methamphetamines and phencyclidine can induce aggressive behavior. Without knowing what he was taking, I can’t speak to this issue.
4. Antidepressants take a LONG time to achieve a full effect. Typically, antidepressants such as Prozac take up to 8 to 12 weeks to achieve a full effect. Illegal drug or alcohol use at any time during antidepressant treatment can seriously compromise the ability of an antidepressant to do its job, or even render the drug completely ineffective. Combine the two and who knows what could happen?
5. Just because the media reports it doesn’t make it true. Bad news sells, or at the very least, attracts public attention. Look at school shootings. Because of media coverage, there was an overwhelming push to examine this issue, when in fact, the average individual is statistically more likely to win the litter than be involved in a school shooting. Truth is, school shootings are extremely rare. I suspect you will never see the media lining up to report the overwhelming number of studies that have supported the safety and efficacy of antidepressants.
Food for thought.