Comments on: NIU killer was taking medication

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:07:01 +0000

^^ Forgot to mention that I am not any kind of medical professional at all, but have tried many different psychiatric drugs over the last 15 years due to sensitivity to side effects. Different people will have different experiences with the same drug.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:05:28 +0000

No, not alternate dimension, I did not explain myself very clearly.

What I mean by addiction is that the initial effect (relief of symptoms) of taking the drug starts to diminish, and increasing quantities of the drug have to be taken to maintain the same level of relief. No SSRI is addictive in this sense, unlike street drugs like heroin or prescription drugs such as morphine.

If psychiatric drugs, which often affect mood, are suddenly stopped, mood swings are one possibility, as well as physical side effects such as “brain zaps” (see Effexor) may occur.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:05:26 +0000

Maybe I’ve gone crazy and this is some kind of alternate dimension, but isn’t one of the qualities of addiction defined as “a few unpleasant symptoms due to sudden termination of the drug”?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 06:22:33 +0000

SSRIs are not habit-forming or addictive. If somebody is going off them they need to taper off gradually or they may experience a few unpleasant symptoms due to sudden termination of the drug.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:15:54 +0000

The pharmaceutical companies would probably sue the media if they revealed the drug.

By: p2ponly

p2ponly — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:15:43 +0000

$5 says it was an SSRI. The toxic shock withdrawal effects are super-dangerous.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:12:56 +0000

Jon,

^^ Yes, based on personal experience, this is quite possible. Or the level of the meds he was on before he stopped them was inadequate to control whatever symptoms he was experiencing, and going off the meds would have restored the full effect of the symptoms.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:32:51 +0000

^^ I’m not a doctor or a pharmacist, but might symptoms which led to him taking the drug in the first place have been amplified or exacerbated by withdrawal effects created when he stopped taking it?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:22:22 +0000

@ Hippie – but he had stopped taking the drug

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:03:20 +0000

^^ Right.

And just as interesting, was the maker able prevail on the media to deliberately keep its name out of the reports?

Cheers!

By: Hippie

Hippie — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:57:21 +0000

It would be interesting to know precisely what drug it was, to investigate
the possibility of the drug being a factor in this.
Possibly a major factor.

There are drugs that carry this type of risk, this type of KNOWN risk.

Why are they still prescribed ?

count on this to continue to be hidden.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:41:11 +0000

Why ‘interestingly?’