November 5, 2017

What the media ignores in mass shootings

Generally unmentioned in mas shootings is what prescribed drugs the killer was on. Here, in a 2015 story, is just one reason this issue is important.

Daily Mail, UK - An Oxford University study found that men – and women – in their late teens and early 20s – were almost 50 per cent more likely to be convicted of offences from assault to murder when taking SSRI drugs.

This family of anti-depressants includes Prozac, as well as Seroxat, Lustral, Cipralex and Cipramil, the most commonly prescribed of the pills.

One in eight Britons takes SSRIs each year – and the number of prescription has doubled in the last decade.

Meanwhile in the US around 11 per cent of people aged 12 and over take antidepressants, including SSRIs, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Men and women in their late teens and early 20s were almost 50 per cent more likely to be convicted of offences from assault to murder when they were taking SSRI drugs, new research has found (file image) +2

Men and women in their late teens and early 20s were almost 50 per cent more likely to be convicted of offences from assault to murder when they were taking SSRI drugs, new research has found (file image)

The tablets already carry a warning that the drugs are linked to suicidal thoughts in young people and it was suspected they were also linked to violence but evidence was sparse until now.

The researchers said the risk in 15 to 24 year olds is ‘not insignificant’ and that the public health implications ‘require careful consideration’.


Oxford psychiatrist Senna Faze used official records to analyse the behaviour of more than 800,000 Swedes aged 15-plus who had been prescribed SSRIs. Tracking them for four years allowed him to compare their behaviour when they were on the pills to when they were off them.

Professor Fazel, who researches the links between mental illness and violent crime, said: ‘People who were aged between 15 and 24 had a 43 per cent higher risk of committing a violent crime when medicating compared to when not medicating.

‘Among the other age groups we didn’t see any associations that were significant at all.’

The professor isn’t sure what’s behind the link but one possibility is that the drugs act differently on developing brains.

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