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In recent years, there has been much debate about whether psychotropic drugs – antidepressants – can cause aggressive behavior. As it turned out, not much.
Scientists have long known that certain drugs taken by would-be criminals can increase their risk of committing murder. Psychotropic drugs have always been considered especially dangerous. In cases of mass killings committed by young people in the US and other countries, it has been repeatedly claimed that such killings are provoked by the antidepressants that the perpetrators take. It is possible that public opinion on this issue could also influence doctors who prescribe such drugs.
Recent developments in this area have shown that painkillers and tranquilizers are the most dangerous, while antidepressants only slightly increase the risk. These are the results of a study conducted in Finland by the group of Professor Jari Tiihonen.
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- Antidepressants and the will to live
To find out what medications the perpetrators were taking, the researchers studied the cases of 959 people convicted of murder in Finland between 2003 and 2011. For this, the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy’s homicide database was used, as well as the register of prescriptions for medicines issued by the Social Security Institute. After weeding out extraneous factors, the researchers found that antipsychotics were not associated with an increased risk of homicide, antidepressants slightly increased the risk (+31%), benzodiazepines (tranquilizers for treating anxiety and insomnia) increased it much more (+45%). Interestingly, narcotic pain medication (+92%) and anti-inflammatory pain medication (+206%) increased the risk the most. Among offenders under 26 years of age, the highest risk of homicide was associated with the use of narcotic painkillers (+223%) and benzodiazepines (+95%).
It should be noted that in many cases, convicts were prescribed large doses of benzodiazepines for a long time. It is known that these drugs can weaken self-control, as well as affect the emotional sphere of a person. Jari Tiihonen recommends that special care be taken when prescribing such drugs to people who have suffered from alcohol or drug addiction in the past.
Подробнее см. J. Tiihonen et al. «Psychotropic drugs and homicide: a prospective cohort study from Finland», World Psychiatry, June 2015.