Soldiers in a fog of drugs and war

April 11, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Soldiers in a fog of drugs and war
Posted by Letters Editor

Drug companies

As a nurse, I am heartened by your coverage of the bizarre, violent behavior sometimes seen in people taking psychotropic drugs, especially the SSRI’s. [“Soldiers in a fog of drugs and war,” page one, April 10.]

The literature dispensed with the drugs warns of this, yet it goes ignored. Many of us have waited a long time to see this exposed. Nurses and others who keep up with health issues know that these meds are heavily implicated in sudden, unexplained murders, school killings and suicides by seemingly “normal” people.

At best, it may be briefly mentioned on a back page, that the killer “had a history of depression.” Tragically, news outlets steer well clear of mentioning the drugs, as they don’t want to face the ire of “Big Pharma” or the loss of advertising; except of course in cases where it can be reported that the defendant was “off” his “medication” at the time, which gets mentioned in the headline. Drug companies know how to use their influence, targeting struggling “independent” papers.

Congratulations and let’s try to keep up the courageous coverage. This is a life-or-death issue. I don’t mean to make excuses for Robert Bales in the latest massacre. Nonetheless, we must finally acknowledge the role antidepressants are playing, and expose those in and out of the military who greatly benefit from their mass dissemination and use.

— Susan Liddell-Jones, RN, Renton
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestvoices/2017956389_medslet.html