This is the title of a 2010 research report by Thomas J. Moore, Joseph Glenmullen, and Curt D. Furberg, published in PLOS One, an online peer-reviewed journal.
The authors of the study searched the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System from 2004 to September 2009, and flagged reports indicating violence.
They concluded:
“Acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a relatively small group of drugs.”
The authors also established that the highest association with violence was found in “…drugs that increase the availability of serotonin or dopamine in the brain.” The strongest association was with Varenicline (a smoking cessation aid), followed by the SSRI antidepressants (e.g. Prozac, Paxil, Luvox, Zoloft, etc.) and amphetamines. There have been numerous anecdotal reports in the literature of links between SSRI’s and violence, and there is a 2006 paper by David Healy et al which pointed to “possible links” between these drugs and violence in “susceptible individuals.”
Incidentally, one of the authors of the 2010 study, Joseph Glenmullen, wrote the book Prozac Backlash, which is well worth reading.
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By the way:
I have updated my post on depression in the light of comments received. It’s now called Depression Is Not An Illness; It’s An Adaptive Mechanism. You can see it here.