Wednesday, August 7, 2019

National Review Article by Me


3 comments:

  1. Clayton - I've read here and there that SSRIs (or occasionally other psychiatric meds) are a common factor in a lot of mass murders - apparently for some people, these medications make them crazier. Is there anything to this?

    Incidentally, marijuana seems to be this way - most people mellow out when using marijuana, but a few people get really paranoid and agitated, and this is not related to marijuana's illegal status.

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  2. Clayton, congratulations on getting published in the premier conservative journal! Good work.

    Anthony... SSRI's are so commonly used that they will show up in correlations, but whether there is causation is another issue. But.. no doubt any medication will have an odd effect on a few people - humans are really complex. There is speculation that SSRI's increase suicide risk in some depressed people, perhaps lifting the depression just enough for them to get the energy to kill themselves. And, suicidal people sometimes kill others as part of their suicide, as we often see with mass murderers.

    But, none of that is a reason not to prescribe SSRI's. However, that doesn't mean that they are always the right prescription - it's just too complex a problem.

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  3. The paranoia and agitation to homicidal levels is apparently well known to doctors in India. I don't remember where I read it, unfortunately.

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