Patients On the Verge of Suicide or Murder

(Article changed on December 31, 2012 at 15:40)

I am a human rights advocate, and I wish to respond to the recent blog post called "I am Adam Lanza's Mother"  seen in OpEdNews.   "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," was written by a woman in Boise, Idaho, who clearly loves her son but is afraid of his violent tendencies that she can not control.  While recognizing dealing with a child out of control is frightening and emotionally exhausting,  I want to take a different look at the same problem.  Here is clearly a mother at her wits end, dealing with a situation, caused by her son's mental condition, that leads her to fear for her own life when she is confronting his anger and aggression.  But this situation did not occur overnight, there were clearly many lapses in social support systems to this traumatized family.  There was inadequate respite care for the parents - especially for the mother who is clearly feeling the weight of years of emotional stress and vicarious trauma.  Respite care is someone to babysit or stay with the child, so the care giver can get out of the house, do normal things, relax, recuperate from a stressful day and just be alone.  I can empathize with that basic need of care givers as I know first hand what it feels like to be the primary care giver of a needy but difficult to control disabled child.  It is absolutely exhausting - emotionally, physically, spiritually and psychologically.

But in our society there is also the lack of education to the families about how to deal with angry out busts and aggressive behavior, leaving them without the tools to control behavior.  This can lead to  a "I will take you to the hospital" if you misbehave syndrome or "Here's another Pill".  We as a society have accepted the concept that a pill will "cure" everything.   There often are a lack of social supports and educational programs for the child that also would give the mother a break from the care duties, as well as potentially teaching the child how to control behavior and to pattern new behavioral cues for him.   The hospital is  often used as a threat - a punishment,  not a place of security and safety for the child.   It is instead a place to confine him so that he is no longer in the home - when his family do not feel safe he is sent there.  There is the use of psychiatric drugs for chemical restraint, which can lead to multiple side effects in the child, among these are the possibility of racing thoughts of violence, lack of inhibition to violence, and depression leading to suicide and other self injury.  

See this website : http://MedicalWhistleblowerNetwork.Jigsy.com ;  for more information about mental health human rights and psychiatric drug adverse side effects.

Did Adam Lanza's mother know that psychiatric drugs might make her son a killer?  There are good reasons for that FDA warning on the very drugs that parents give their children multiple times a day.  But doctors refuse to discuss the adverse side effects with patients and their families, they down play the real dangers of these psychiatric medications and they often do not inform families when the prescription is "off label" or not according to FDA and medical guidelines.  Most patients taking  SSRI drugs report feeling fuzzy, out of touch with their emotions and distanced from the events of their own lives.  Thus these drugs are used for behavioral control for that reason - patients just don't care about anything - they lack the ability to feel joy or to feel empathy.  But a lack of ability to feel empathy is necessary for the act of murder.  A lack of the ability to care about anything or to feel joy leads to depression and possible  suicide.  These drugs are given out as if there is no caution needed and yet they are the reason for multiple fatalities due to suicide, homicide and medical complications leading to death or permanent disability. These psychiatric medications, that are given out so recklessly by doctors,  work on the brain in the same identical manner as  LSD or PCP.   The Eli Lilly company who first marketed these medications (Prozac) is the same company that had touted LSD to be a cure for alcoholism,  and mental illness. 

According to news reports Adam Lanza was reported to be suffering from Aspergers' syndrome. Although the Asperger's syndrome  is in some ways similar to autism, a child with Asperger's syndrome typically has normal language and intellectual development.  A pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom.  This is a mental disability, but is not the cause of his violence.   Psychologists and psychiatrists agree that people with autism or Asperger's are not more likely to commit violent crimes than members of the general population, but it rarely does happen. They may not pick up on social cues and may lack inborn social skills, such as being able to read others' body language, start or maintain a conversation, and take turns talking.  They dislike changes in routines and be unable to recognize subtle differences in speech tone, pitch and accent.  They may appear to lack empathy because they do not understand the meaning of others, and avoid eye contact, and have unusual facial expressions or postures.  A person with Asperger's syndrome may have a sensory processing disorder and thus have heightened sensitivity and become overstimulated by loud noises, lights, or strong tastes or textures.  The mainstay of management of patients with Asperger's  is behavioral therapy, focusing on specific deficits to address poor communication skills, obsessive or repetitive routines, and physical clumsiness. Most children improve as they mature to adulthood, but social and communication difficulties may persist. 

But what happens to a person with this disorder when you add a drug - an SSRI or anti-depressant to his daily medications.  These drugs have a Food and Drug Administration black box warning that states that they increase the risk of violent thoughts, suicide and other violent acts.  This is the real fact that is being hidden from the American public because the pharmaceutical company makes so much profit on these medications that we as a society have allowed them to buy silence from the courts, from the prosecutors, from the politicians, from the legislators, from the medical professionals, from the social workers and ultimately from the parents.   So my advice to the mother who feels like she was Adam Lanza's mother - I ask you to read the FDA black box warning label on the pills you feed your kid every day.

I am the human rights advocate for Mark Taylor, victim of the Columbine shootings in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.    We found out in our investigation that it was the drug LUVOX which caused the racing violent thoughts in the Columbine killers.  These two boys were both troubled.  This drug Luvox had already caused patients to commit suicide and murder.  The Solvay pharmaceutical company wanted to suppress the research information that gave doctors clear concerns that the drug was very dangerous and could cause a range of disturbing symptoms.   This is not a situation where the doctor knew best what would help these boys.  Eric Harris, the shooter who shot Mark Taylor, was originally taking another anti-depressant/SSRI psychiatric medication, then because he was having thoughts of suicide was switched to LUVOX not because it was safer (because it wasn't even approved by the FDA for that use) but because there was less medical liability for the doctor.  This means that the doctor would be less likely to face a malpractice liability law suit, because it had been approved for use in younger patients for another unrelated  mental disorder.  So the medical doctor did not withdraw Eric Harris from psychiatric medications, but instead just switched to another medication - one in which the doctor's medical legal risk was lower.  

Solvay Pharmaceuticals bought the silence of the victims of Columbine and may have also bought the silence of the parents of the shooters, but the public deserves to hear the truth.  This medication is still being given to patients, but now under another brand name.  After the  multiple homicides,  Solvay sold the legal rights to the drug to another company.  Changing the name and distributing it from another manufacturer means that the knowledge of the drugs dangers is thus hidden from the public.

These psychiatric drugs, and there are so many of them now being used (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox,Effexor, Serzone, Remeron, Lexapro, Seraphim) are designed to work on the brain by impairing your ability to metabolize serotonin.  Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI's) do exactly that they Inhibit the re-uptake of serotonin at the level of the brain cell, this leaves  excess serotonin which allows  continued stimulation of the neuron.   But higher levels of serotonin can  cause patients to suffer from psychosis or schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, has a Ph.D. in Health Sciences with the emphasis on Psychology, is the director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness.  She has specialized for 14 years in adverse reactions to serotonergic medications and has testified before the FDA and congressional subcommittee members on Prozac.  Dr. Ann Blake Tracy PhD has been studying the effects of these drugs and reports that Australian researchers have found that SSRI medication actually increase the serotonin to a level eight times higher than normal.   A high level of serotoin can cause patients to experience  schizophrenia, psychosis,  organic brain disease,  anorexia, autism,  and even lead to the kind of depression and anxiety that causes violent actions such as suicides, repeated suicide attempts, very violent suicide, violent crime, arson, substance abuse or cravings for alcohol and other drugs, insomnia, violent nightmares, plus impulsive behavior with no concern for punishment.   Ely Lily - the manufacturer of Prozac and countless other pharmaceutical drugs - reports that ADD patients prescribed Prozac are twelve times more likely to commit suicide than those with ADD who are not taking it - http://www.drugawareness.org/home.html.

These medications can cause hostility, argumentative behavior, and other inappropriate behavior because they over-ride the inherent inhibitions that keep a check on behavior.  When you interfere with the basic functioning of the brain by impairing the patient's ability to metabolize serotonin then you also may create a person who is on the verge of an impulsive murder and suicide.  Now doesn't that sound like what the distressed mother from the article   "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother,"  was really talking about.  

So to all parents who are currently drugging their children, look at the Food and Drug Administration's black box warning label, read the prescription package insert, ask your doctor about the serious side effects of these medications, demand real informed consent before adding or switching to a new drug, it might just save a life - that life might be yours.

See this website : http://MedicalWhistleblowerNetwork.Jigsy.com ;  for more information about mental health human rights and psychiatric drug adverse side effects.