There is a popular belief that “psychiatric medications prevent violence.” The reality is much more complicated.
Some research papers argue that psychiatric medications “might” reduce crime, but so far there has been no real solid evidence to support this claim. For example, Steven R Pliszka MD, writes that juvenile crime decreased during the last decades, because psychiatric prescriptions increased, but he does not provide any arguments.
In fact, criminologists, who study crime reduction, cite many reasons for it, such as the presence of cell phones, effective community programs and other factors that have nothing to do with medications.
Dr. Pliszka has never studied crime, but he has been paid by many pharmaceutical companies and was even employed by one of them. Is this why he makes unsupported claims about benefits of medications produced by these companies?
Studies by researchers who are not paid by pharmaceutical industry show that medications sometimes create aggression in people who were not violent before they started taking medications. This happens in several ways.
This is a common side effect of antipsychotics, antidpressants, and some other medications. Akathisia occurs in 14% to 35% of patients treated with antipsychotics. Adverse reactions to the akathisia-inducing drugs “include toxic psychosis, homicide and suicide.” This means that some people (up to 35%) take their medications as prescribed and become psychotic and violent because of the medications’ side effects.
People who take psychiatric medications for a long time and then suddenly stop suffer from withdrawal symptoms. To understand withdrawal, think about somebody who tries to quit smoking, drinking alcohol, or using street drugs. They may become irritable, confused, and aggressive. The same thing sometimes happen to the people who try to quit prescribed medications.
Emotional blunting
This is another side effect of antipsychotics and antidepressants. Signs of emotional blunting include “not having much sympathy for people” and “not caring.” It is easy to see why somebody feeling this way is more likely to hurt people.