Donald Schell — Paxil (paroxetine). After two days on Paxil, Schell killed his wife, daughter and infant granddaughter, then himself. In Estates of Tobin v. SmithKline Beecham, a federal civil jury found that Paxil can cause homicide or suicide in some people and was a proximate cause of these deaths; the manufacturer was assigned 80% responsibility. The judge upheld the verdict. David John Hawkins — Zoloft (sertraline). Anxious about a pending move and unable to sleep, Hawkins swallowed 250 mg overnight—five times his prescribed dose, though only 50 mg above the maximum recommended daily dose—and strangled his wife. In Regina v Hawkins, the sentencing judge found: “I am satisfied that but for the Zoloft he had taken he would not have strangled his wife.” Hawkins pleaded guilty to manslaughter on diminished-responsibility grounds. Interestingly, this is the same dose of Zoloft the Tumbler Ridge shooter was on. Neal Jacobson — Zoloft (sertraline) and Xanax (alprazolam). Jacobson began the prescriptions approximately three weeks before killing his wife and seven-year-old twin sons. Family and friends said his personality changed rapidly after he started them: he became sleepless, anxious, paranoid and hallucinatory. He pleaded guilty, but later argued that the medications, combined with hypothyroidism, had rendered him temporarily insane. A Florida appellate court ruled that his potential prescribed-drug intoxication and insanity defenses warranted further consideration and noted that a psychologist had concluded he was insane at the time; it did not find that the drugs caused the killings. David Carmichael — Paxil. He was found not criminally responsible because of psychosis, although the court did not formally decide that Paxil caused it. His wife Beth and daughter Gillian remained in his life; he was eventually permitted to live with them again. Gillian described her father before and during Paxil as “two different people.” David maintains that Paxil induced the psychosis that culminated in altruistic filicide: Ian had epilepsy, and David delusionally believed he was saving his son from a life of suffering. About two weeks after Paxil was discontinued, the psychosis lifted. When the gravity of what he had done hit him, he cried for three days. “I know I’ll never recover from this.” David Crespi — Prozac (fluoxetine), Ambien (zolpidem), Lunesta (eszopiclone) and trazodone. Crespi had a long history of severe depression, suicide attempts and unwanted homicidal thoughts—reportedly occurring both on and off medication—but no prior act of violence. What followed the rapid medication changes was something new: psychosis and murder. Seven days after starting Prozac, he turned a game of hide-and-seek with his five-year-old twins, Tessara and Samantha, into murder, chasing them through the house and stabbing them 32 times in total. He then called 911 and confessed. Crespi remained profoundly delusional afterward. He told a state-appointed psychiatrist that the lawn sprinklers had instructed him to murder the girls and that Kim could bring them back to life. He later said: “Who I was was chemically altered. I know what caused the death of my daughters. I know it was the pills.” Crespi pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder to avoid the death penalty and is serving two life sentences, so drug causation was never adjudicated. His wife Kim stood by him from the beginning, continued visiting him in prison and spent years trying to overturn his plea. Asked whether she forgave him, she said he did not need her forgiveness because, in her view, the husband she knew had not committed the crime; the drugs had. “We all loved each other the minute before it happened,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we love each other now?” Shane Clancy — Celexa (citalopram). Shane killed Sebastian Creane and attacked two others, then stabbed himself 19 times, including a fatal wound to the heart. Because he died, there was no criminal trial. His mother Leonie Fennell and stepfather publicly maintained that citalopram caused the transformation; his father described the previously pacifist Shane as “not in his right mind.” The inquest returned an open verdict rather than finding drug causation. Not every case here is clean-cut. But most had no history of serious violence. Most were totally normal besides some circumstantial anxiety or depression. These people sought help and took the pills prescribed to them. And then they committed acts that are hard to comprehend. Against people they loved. None of this absolves anyone who becomes violent while taking a psychiatric drug. But it should force us to look closely at psychiatry. These were not reckless people choosing intoxication. These were vulnerable patients following medical advice. Doing exactly what society tells responsible citizens to do. It’s clear the majority of people have no idea what these medications can do under the wrong circumstances. There are no objective tests to confirm these diagnoses. Physiologically, we can’t even watch what these drugs are doing. The patient absorbs all the blame. It was designed this way. We can’t keep treating this woodchipper of an industry as blameless. Psychiatry is a fraud.