RFK Jr., without evidence, targets psychiatric meds in wake of Minneapolis mass shooting

[USS_Dauntless]

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Thursday that he’s looking into psychiatric medication as a potential cause for American gun violence and mass shootings. The comments were a repetition of an unfounded assertion that Kennedy has made before, this time in the wake of a Minneapolis mass shooting that killed two children.

Kennedy’s comments came at the end of a Thursday press conference in Austin, where the health secretary sat alongside Gov. Greg Abbott to talk about rural health care. A reporter asked Kennedy if he considers gun violence to be a public health crisis.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/rfk-jr-without-evidence-targets-psychiatric-meds-in-wake-of-minneapolis-mass-shooting/

[Deuxcents]

1. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think I'll scream.

[USS_Dauntless]

8. I fucking hate this man so much.

[lostincalifornia]

2. Yup, that will stop those pesky mass shooting, because it was those meds that made them do it. (sarcasm)

It seems to me the one who needs those psychiatric meds might be rfk jr, or perhaps he is already on them and that is the reason he wants to cause mass murder in the country with his vaccine policies.

[FalloutShelter]

3. So what now?

Scientology?

[USS_Dauntless]

7. No.

He wants to send neurodivergent people to "farms".

[Irish_Dem]

10. My mother was a student nurse after WWII, she watched priests do exorcisms on the psych ward

of the Catholic hospital in a large US city when she did her psych rotation.

The priests were called in to get rid of the demons making people mentally ill.
This was in the late 1940's here in the US.

My mother's daughter (me) and her granddaughter went on to be mental health
professionals and watched the specialty change tremendously thanks to modern medicine.

Psychotropic medication changed the world of mental health.

No one had to be locked up in psych hospitals any longer.

[womanofthehills]

20. Isn't there a huge range from anxiety to schizophrenia

My neighbor has schizophrenia and often goes to the psychiatric hospital.

Fewer people go to psychologists or for counseling and just take drugs. Less money for insurance companies to pay out.

Supposedly over 15% of Americans are on psychiatric drugs which is sad but also good I guess. Something is really wrong with our society that so many people have such anxiety and unhappiness.

Black box warnings on all anxiety meds. A black box like is also on other drugs like Cipro. I had to talk down 2 friends who were suicidal when on Cipro. We all have different sensitivities to drugs.


“WARNING: SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIORS

Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies. These studies did not show an increase in the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior with antidepressant use in patients over age 24; there was a reduction in risk with antidepressant use in patients aged 65 and older.

In patients of all ages who are started on antidepressant therapy, monitor closely for worsening, and for emergence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Advise families and caregivers of the need for close observation and communication with the prescriber.”

[Drug Name] is not approved for use in pediatric patients [except for specific indications, if applicable].

[Irish_Dem]

23. Yes of course. Mood disorders are quite different from the psychotic disorders.

But there certainly were severely depressed people locked up in psych hospitals in the old days.
The crippling kind where they cannot get out of bed and or make frequent suicide attempts.

Yes but the difference is that your friend has short stays in the hospital to stabilize her
and she quickly returned to home. She is not locked up for life.

Psych meds changed things tremendously. People no longer had to have long stays in the hospital
and could function normally.

When I started in practice, there was only first generation psych drugs but it was wonderful.
It was like a miracle to see the severely mentally ill return to normal in such a quick period of time
with meds.

23% of the US have some sort of mental illness.
But only 6% have serious mental illness.

The rates seem high but it is due to the fact Americans now accept depression and mental illness
as medical problems and are not ashamed to seek treatment.

In 40 years of clinical practice I only saw ONE case of medication induced suicidal thoughts.
That was a young man on Accutane for his acne. I called his dermatologist right away
and insisted he be taken off the medication asap. The doc did so and the young man was fine.

Please note that I was a therapist and did not prescribe meds and obviously believed in talking
therapy as beneficial. But I fully admit that psych meds are a wonderful thing.

I do agree that kids may be overmedicated today.
But on the other hand I have seen seriously suicidal three year olds.
And psychotic 10 year olds.
They need meds.

I think it is easy for lay people to denigrate mental health treatment, but they
are not the ones who have to try to help mentally people in clinics and hospitals.
It is heartbreaking to see seriously ill patients but then a miracle to see them
able to function normally after being treated with medication. It is a miracle of modern medicine.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Does RFK Jr know what it was like before psych meds?

People were hidden away in psych hospitals, hopelessly insane or depressed.
In straight jackets, priests doing exorcism, etc. It was the dark ages and quite cruel.
Thiis was prior to the 60's and 70's.

[haele]

16. His aunt had a frontal lobotomy.

Im pretty sure he has an idea of what it was like back just with basic psych medications - Ritalin, Benzidine, Lithium, Depekote, ect...
Even those days were better than what he's careening towards.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Yes at least there were psych hospitals back then.

Trump just wants the old, sick, infirm to die.
He will find a way to kill those groups.

[CincyDem]

5. Cuz it couldn't be the guns.

[Blues Heron]

6. It's not the pills robert, it's the guns, look there first.

[Turbineguy]

9. It could not possibly be the guns.

[Paladin]

11. Stomach-turning, given the tragic role of gun violence in rfk jr's family. (nt)

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. I predict Kennedy will be impeached or forced to resign before Trump's term is over

It will soon be clear that people will be dying from preventable causes all because of him, and even republicans will clamour for his removal.

[USS_Dauntless]

15. I hope the pharma industry tells him to pound sand.

I NEVER thought I'd be on the side of pharma corps.

[Iris]

19. I feel like he'll be the first one and that it will happen soon

[hildegaard28]

22. He

And his whole cabinet need to be impeached.

[Mister Ed]

13. Other countries have psychiatric meds, but they don't have the mass shootings.

I wonder what the difference could be? I can't quite seem to put my finger on it...

[Deuxcents]

14. Guns are the common denominator in all these mass murders and yet..what else can they blame for this mess

[no_hypocrisy]

18. Talking like Tom Cruise and Scientology.

[Blue Owl]

21. Let's send RFK on a vacation to Louisiana with free all-you-can-eat raw oysters