(1888PressRelease)
January 19, 2008 - The mental health watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says the federal government must launch a formal investigation into the psychiatric drug/violence connection following autopsy reports confirming two recent shooters were under the influence of psychiatric drugs documented to cause violence, psychosis and suicide. 19-year-old Nebraska mall shooter Robert Hawkins and 24-year-old Colorado church shooter Matthew Murray were both taking “anti-anxiety” drugs when they went on killing rampages in December within four days of each other. These massacres follow ten recent psychiatric drug induced school shootings, including Eric Harris at Columbine, Colorado and Jeff Weise at Red Lake, Minnesota, bringing the total to 53 dead and 94 wounded in these shootings.
Clinical psychopharmacologist and psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin wrote in his book, Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (1997) that “benzodiazepines [a class of drugs that includes Valium and Xanax] can produce a wide variety of abnormal mental responses and hazardous behavioral abnormalities, including rebound anxiety and insomnia, psychosis, paranoia, violence, antisocial acts, depression, and suicide.”
A staggering $265,000 in state funds was spent on Robert Hawkins’ behavior and addiction “treatment.” This expensive state “care” included four years in and out of treatment centers, psych evaluations, regular therapy and extensive prescriptions for powerful drugs including Zoloft, Adderall and Effexor, warned to cause “homicidal ideation.” This case clearly refutes the mental health industry's standard negation of psychiatric drug induced violence—the claim the patient did not get enough treatment, used to clamor for increased funding.
CCHR, concerned that most parents and consumers are unaware of the risk of homicide and suicide connected with these drugs, has launched a striking series of three PSAs warning of these side effects. The PSAs can be viewed at www.cchr.org/psas/. CCHR hopes that these PSAs serve to inform the public about the dangers of these drugs and encourage support for a federal investigation into the link between these drugs and senseless violence.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR's Media Department at 800-869-2247 or humanrights ( @ ) cchr dot org.
