"Wonder if he was on under-researched antidepressants too?"
Yeah, anti-depressants are to blame for EVERY shooting, EVERYwhere in the United States.
Of course not, but it does seem to be a constant in these recent massacre shootings. The things really aren't well enough researched, especially with younger males, hormone interaction, all that. Who knows if they have some effect on judgment, inhibition or impulse control? It's still their fault, of course, the person who pulls the trigger, but those meds can affect behavior and judgment. They can change the balance of not only serotonin, but noreprinephrine as well, and when someone goes cold turkey off them...what happens then?
I just think more research is needed, rather than pop psychiatrists simply flinging them at any troubled teen as they do now, without counseling, without adequate followup.
Kids have always been depressed. But did this happen quite so often before the Age Of the Pill? Back when kids used to bring guns to school to go hunting, long ago...did this happen?
It's not a root cause, for certain, but they're given out like candy, and could in fact be a factor or catalyst. Ironically, it's been theorized that instead of curing the root cause of depression, they might just alleviate the sense of malaise enough to let the still-depressed person take action...a bad, bad action. There's some questions that ought to be answered by research.
