In 1996, the National Preferred Medicines Center Inc. in New Zealand, issued a report on “Acute drug withdrawal,” saying that withdrawal from psychoactive drugs can cause 1) rebound effects that exacerbate previous symptoms of a “disease,” and 2) new symptoms unrelated to the condition that had not been previously experienced by the patient.

Dr. John Zajecka reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that the agitation and irritability experienced by patients withdrawing from one SSRI can cause “aggressiveness and suicidal impulsivity.”

In Lancet , the British medical journal, Dr. Miki Bloch reported that patients became suicidal and homicidal after stopping an antidepressant, with one man having thoughts of harming “his own children.”

On May 25, 2001, Judge Barry O’Keefe of the New South Wales Supreme Court, Australia, blamed an antidepressant for turning a peaceful, law-abiding man, David Hawkins, into a violent killer (of his wife). Had Mr. Hawkins not taken the antidepressant, the judge said, “it is overwhelmingly probable that Mrs. Hawkins would not have been killed.”

In June 2001, a Wyoming jury awarded $8 million to the relatives of Donald Schell, who went on a shooting rampage after taking an antidepressant. The jury determined that the drug was 80% responsible for inducing the killing spree.

Presidential Assassin:
On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. staged an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. A psychiatrist later attributed Hinckley’s attack on the President and others to be a violent rage precipitated by a psychiatric drug.

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