The following letter is from Dr. Ann Tracy in response to the PBS
Frontline Special which aired 1/19/00 on Kip Kinkel.
Disturbing? Certainly! Shocking? Not any more. After ten years straight of witnessing every day of the week what you all saw at Thurston, after witnessing what you all saw at Columbine every day of the week and on and on and on, I am beginning to wonder if we, as a society, are capable of learning the dangers of drugging ourselves and our children! How much more can it take?
For decades research has shown that high levels of the brain chemical, serotonin,
is found in those who have organic brain disease; are psychotic; commit
violent crime, suicide, and impulsive acts; etc. Prozac and its clones,
Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Effexor,
Serzone, etc., as well as LSD and PCP, increase serotonin levels. If Kip was
already
showing signs of high levels of serotonin, why would he be given a drug
like Prozac that INCREASES serotonin levels?!! Were they trying to push
him over the edge with their "one size fits all solution"?
The hopelessness, the rage, the feeling of having "no choice" in his actions, obsessions
with firearms and bombs, inability to detect nightmares from reality, overwhelming
compulsions to kill and be killed, are reports I have taken thousands of
times over from patients who are either on drugs
like Prozac or have recently come off the drugs. The drug-induced rage can
go on for months after coming off - especially if the withdrawal is a rapid
one.
We also know that 80% of those in prison for violent crimes have been found to be hypoglycemic. Why would that have anything to do with violence? When the blood sugar drops the brain immediately begins to suffer damage. In an effort to normalize the sugar levels and stop the damage to the brain, the body pumps adrenaline, the "fight or flight" hormone. The individual cannot think clearly due to the drop in blood sugar producing damage to the brain, plus the adrenaline reaction produces either anger or panic. The end result is violence. While keeping that in mind you should also know that increases in serotonin drop the blood sugar drastically.
Those are only a couple of the reasons why I immediately believed (and believe even more so after seeing the details of Kip's case) that Prozac was the catalyst that drove him to the point of taking the lives of his parents and his classmates. The same is true for Eric Harris and Luvox. I would go on with the cases, but there are too many to list here.
If we called the drugs PCP or Angel Dust, no one would question the reason for either boy's actions. But when they are using drugs that produce a similar effect in the brain we ignore it because the drugs came from their doctor, rather than from some guy on the street corner. Yet, how many are aware that both LSD and PCP were first introduced as prescription drugs and were considered very safe - even "miracle" drugs?
How many more cases must we witness before we learn our lesson with these newer
serotonin reuptake inhibitors? If seeing our children suffer in this manner is not enough, I do not want to witness what it will take to wake us up!
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy,
Executive Director, International Coalition for Drug Awareness,
www.drugawareness.org
