Neuroscience
Regular use of over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, and acetaminophen was associated with three times the risk of committing a homicide in a new Finnish study (Tiihonen et al., 2015). The association between NSAID use and murderous acts was far greater than the risk posed by antidepressants.
Clearly, drug companies are pushing dangerous, toxic chemicals and we should ban the substances that are causing school massacres — Advil and Alleve and Tylenol are evil!!
Wait..... what?
Tiihonen and colleagues wanted to test the hypothesis that antidepressant treatment is associated with an increased risk of committing a homicide. Because, you know, the Scientology-backed Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Colorado thinks so (and their blog is cited in the paper!!):
The authors reviewed a database of all homicides investigated by the police in Finland between 2003 and 2011. A total of 959 offenders were included in the analysis. Each offender was matched to 10 controls selected from the Population Information System. Then the authors checked purchases in the Finnish Prescription Register. A participant was considered a "user" if they had a current purchase in the system.1
The main drug classes examined were antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and antipsychotics. The primary outcome measure was risk of offending for current use vs. no use of those drugs (with significance set to p<0.016 to correct for multiple comparisons). Seven other drug classes were examined as secondary outcome measures (with α adjusted to .005): opioid analgesics, non-opioid analgesics (e.g., NSAIDs), antiepileptics, lithium, stimulants, meds for addictive disorders, and non-benzo anxiolytics.
Lo and behold, current use of antidepressants in the adult offender population was associated with a 31% greater risk of committing a homicide, but this did not reach significance (p=0.022). On the other hand, benzodiazepine use was associated with a 45% greater risk (p<.001), while antipsychotics were not associated with greater risk of offending (p=0.54).
Most dangerous of all were pain relievers. Current use of opioid analgesics (like Oxycontin and Vicodin) was associated with 92% greater risk. Non-opioid analgesics were even worse: individuals taking these meds were at 206% greater risk of offending — that's a threefold increase. 2 Taken in the context of this surprising result, the anti-psych-med faction doth complain too much about antidepressants.
Furthermore, analysis of young offenders (25 yrs or less) revealed that none of the medications were associated with greater risk of committing a homicide (benzos and opioids were p=.07 and .04 respectively). To repeat: In Finland at least, there was no association between antidepressant use and the risk of becoming a school shooter.
What are we to make of the provocative NSAIDs? More study is needed:
Drug-related murders in oxycodone abusers don't come as a great surprise, but aspirin-related violence is hard to explain...3
Footnotes
1 Having a purchase doesn't mean the individual was actually taking the drug before/during the time of the offense, however.
2 RR = 3.06; 95% CI: 1.78-5.24, p<0.001 for Advil, Tylenol, and the like. And the population-adjusted odds ratios (OR) weren't substantially different, although this wasn't reported for NSAIDs:
3 P.S. Just to be clear here, correlation ≠ causation. Disregarding the anomalous nature of the finding in the first place, it could be that murderers have more headaches and muscle pain, so they take more anti-inflammatories (rather than ibuprofen "causing" violence). But if the anti-med faction uses these results to argue that "antidepressants cause school shootings" then explain how ibuprofen raises the risk threefold...
Reference
Tiihonen, J., Lehti, M., Aaltonen, M., Kivivuori, J., Kautiainen, H., J. Virta, L., Hoti, F., Tanskanen, A., & Korhonen, P. (2015). Psychotropic drugs and homicide: A prospective cohort study from Finland. World Psychiatry, 14 (2), 245-247. DOI: 10.1002/wps.20220
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Neuroscience
Use of Anti-Inflammatories Associated with Threefold Increase in Homicides
Scene from Elephant, a fictional film by Gus Van Sant
Regular use of over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, and acetaminophen was associated with three times the risk of committing a homicide in a new Finnish study (Tiihonen et al., 2015). The association between NSAID use and murderous acts was far greater than the risk posed by antidepressants.
Clearly, drug companies are pushing dangerous, toxic chemicals and we should ban the substances that are causing school massacres — Advil and Alleve and Tylenol are evil!!
Wait..... what?
Tiihonen and colleagues wanted to test the hypothesis that antidepressant treatment is associated with an increased risk of committing a homicide. Because, you know, the Scientology-backed Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Colorado thinks so (and their blog is cited in the paper!!):
After a high-profile homicide case, there is often discussion in the media on whether or not the killing was caused or facilitated by a psychotropic medication. Antidepressants have especially been blamed by non-scientific organizations for a large number of senseless acts of violence, e.g., 13 school shootings in the last decade in the U.S. and Finland [1].
The authors reviewed a database of all homicides investigated by the police in Finland between 2003 and 2011. A total of 959 offenders were included in the analysis. Each offender was matched to 10 controls selected from the Population Information System. Then the authors checked purchases in the Finnish Prescription Register. A participant was considered a "user" if they had a current purchase in the system.1
The main drug classes examined were antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and antipsychotics. The primary outcome measure was risk of offending for current use vs. no use of those drugs (with significance set to p<0.016 to correct for multiple comparisons). Seven other drug classes were examined as secondary outcome measures (with α adjusted to .005): opioid analgesics, non-opioid analgesics (e.g., NSAIDs), antiepileptics, lithium, stimulants, meds for addictive disorders, and non-benzo anxiolytics.
Lo and behold, current use of antidepressants in the adult offender population was associated with a 31% greater risk of committing a homicide, but this did not reach significance (p=0.022). On the other hand, benzodiazepine use was associated with a 45% greater risk (p<.001), while antipsychotics were not associated with greater risk of offending (p=0.54).
Most dangerous of all were pain relievers. Current use of opioid analgesics (like Oxycontin and Vicodin) was associated with 92% greater risk. Non-opioid analgesics were even worse: individuals taking these meds were at 206% greater risk of offending — that's a threefold increase. 2 Taken in the context of this surprising result, the anti-psych-med faction doth complain too much about antidepressants.
Furthermore, analysis of young offenders (25 yrs or less) revealed that none of the medications were associated with greater risk of committing a homicide (benzos and opioids were p=.07 and .04 respectively). To repeat: In Finland at least, there was no association between antidepressant use and the risk of becoming a school shooter.
What are we to make of the provocative NSAIDs? More study is needed:
The surprisingly high risk associated with opioid and non-opioid analgesics deserves further attention in the treatment of pain among individuals with criminal history.
Drug-related murders in oxycodone abusers don't come as a great surprise, but aspirin-related violence is hard to explain...3
Footnotes
1 Having a purchase doesn't mean the individual was actually taking the drug before/during the time of the offense, however.
2 RR = 3.06; 95% CI: 1.78-5.24, p<0.001 for Advil, Tylenol, and the like. And the population-adjusted odds ratios (OR) weren't substantially different, although this wasn't reported for NSAIDs:
The analysis based on case-control design showed an adjusted OR of 1.30 (95% CI: 0.97-1.75) as the risk of homicide for the current use of an antidepressant, 2.52 (95% CI: 1.90-3.35) for benzodiazepines, 0.62 (95% CI: 0.41-0.93) for antipsychotics, and 2.16 (95% CI: 1.41-3.30) for opioid analgesics.
3 P.S. Just to be clear here, correlation ≠ causation. Disregarding the anomalous nature of the finding in the first place, it could be that murderers have more headaches and muscle pain, so they take more anti-inflammatories (rather than ibuprofen "causing" violence). But if the anti-med faction uses these results to argue that "antidepressants cause school shootings" then explain how ibuprofen raises the risk threefold...
Reference
Tiihonen, J., Lehti, M., Aaltonen, M., Kivivuori, J., Kautiainen, H., J. Virta, L., Hoti, F., Tanskanen, A., & Korhonen, P. (2015). Psychotropic drugs and homicide: A prospective cohort study from Finland. World Psychiatry, 14 (2), 245-247. DOI: 10.1002/wps.20220
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In the old days of criminal profiling, a psychologist would study the idiosyncrasies of a crime scene with the expert-eye of an art collector inspecting a painting of unknown provenance. They'd draw on their clinical and forensic knowledge to help...
- Well, It Can't Hurt To Ask...yes It Can!
Asking someone how likely they are to take illegal drugs in the future can actually increase the likelihood that they will indeed take drugs – a finding with worrying implications for health research. Patti Williams and colleagues recruited 167 undergrads...
- Helping Yobs
New Home Office research suggests one in four boys aged 14 to 17 could now be classified as a "prolific or serious offender" (but see link). Claire Nee and Tom Ellis at the University of Portsmouth tested the effectiveness of a new intervention for young...
- American Psychological Association Writes Misleading Press Releases, New Research Finds
Here's the headline: Antidepressants may impair driving ability, new research finds It should really be: Depression may impair driving ability, but we don't really know yet because unmedicated depressed people were not tested in this unpublished...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Suicidal Behavior And Semantic Dementia
Suicidal Behavior in Dementia: A Special Risk in Semantic Dementia. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. 2013 Jul 1; Sabodash V, Mendez MF, Fong S, & Hsiao JJAbstractBackground: Some studies report a low suicide risk in general...