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I'm am frequently seeing claims that anti-depressants are causing mass shootings.

Here's one example from 1 Apr 2013: Ammoland

Manasquan, NJ –-(Ammoland.com)- Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years, and multiple other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common, and its not the weapons used.

The overwhelming evidence points to the signal largest common factor in all of these incidents is the fact that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.

Multiple credible scientific studies going back more than a decade, as well as internal documents from certain pharmaceutical companies that suppressed the information show that SSRI drugs ( Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors ) have well known, but unreported side effects, including but not limited to suicide and other violent behavior. One need only Google relevant key words or phrases to see for themselves. www.ssristories.com is one popular site that has documented over 4500 “ Mainstream Media “ reported cases from around the World of aberrant or violent behavior by those taking these powerful drugs.

Is there any evidence that use of SSRIs cause people to act violently?

Oddthinking
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dwjohnston
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    @MichaelK Curiously enough I was talking to someone on reddit today who claims to be a doctor (his history seem to corroborate the claim) who was making the SSRI argument. – dwjohnston Feb 15 '18 at 08:46
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    The error in the argument is this: "We see that perps of mass shootings use SSRI drugs, therefore we conclude that the SSRI drugs caused them to be violent and start shooting". I will leave it as an exercise to the reader what the flaw in this reasoning is. –  Feb 15 '18 at 09:31
  • @MichaelK, That's an oversimplification. The theory in question allows that the shooters were already people who were unwell or had grievances or both, but the drugs, or perhaps withdrawals from drugs, may have somehow nudged them over some ultra-violent tipping point. (IOW prior to the pills, their existing [over-the-shoulder devils and angels](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodAngelBadAngel) were somewhat more balanced, but maybe some pills were like devil viagra or angel roofies.) – agc Feb 23 '18 at 08:40
  • @agc Or maybe they would have started shooting a whole lot sooner if it was not for the SSRI drugs, and we would have a lot more people shooting others if it was not for SSRIs. –  Feb 23 '18 at 08:48
  • @MichaelK, Maybe we _would_ have more shooters, but good luck finding evidence for that. Still, school shootings are new thing, as is the practice of prescribing [amphetamines](http://amphetamines.com/effects/psychological-effects-of-amphetamines/) to students. Back when schools coerced and coaxed students with ferules rather than pills, school massacres were not *a thing*. – agc Feb 23 '18 at 09:36
  • @agc Were they [not a thing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States)? Nor were they simply not reported? Remember that the US was a country where mob lynchings and students getting shot by the military actually happened. Today our tolerance for violence is **much lower** than it has ever been, and news propagation is at an all time high. Gone are the times when you only got the news via the morning paper and the six-o-clock segment on TV. –  Feb 23 '18 at 10:04
  • @MichaelK, The WP list cited tends to confirm the newness of it, C. Whitman's tower murders seem to be the first of the kind, the previous items are mostly not massacres and stem from various different motives. Given the trends in media consolidation, it's questionable if there's more actual professional journalism than 50 years ago, probably a lot less. Propagation does not equal content. Amateur news 2018 does have more of... – agc Feb 23 '18 at 10:41

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