The President’s conference on school violence headed by US Attorney General Gonzales.
Lisa VanSyckle, a member of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness testified:
C-Span Video:
Lisa VanSyckle
Lisa VanSyckle: Good morning. I am Lisa Van Syckle with the International
Coalition for Drug Awareness and I’m from the state of New Jersey. I have or
had a child who was violent and suicidal. She was violent and suicidal due to
the antidepressant Paxil. I took my crusade to the white house, the president responded and it went to HHS and we’ve had congressional hearings, and the
FDA is now under deep scrutiny.
I want to know when are we going to hold the pharmaceutical industry responsible for putting antidepressant medications on the market that cause our children to become violent, suicidal and the majority of the cases of homicide.
And I hear about Columbine all the time. What is not known to the public is
that Eric Harris over the course of a year was on the drug Luvox and it was
increased four times.
We know that these drugs cause violence, we know that they cause homicide.
What are you going to do about it? We have medication guides that are not
being distributed to the classroom, to physicians and to parents, how can we
properly monitor our children without a defined regulation on how these med —
defined regulation on how these medications will be distributed?
Thank you.
Delbert Elliott – Univ. of CO Center for Study and Prevention of Violence –
Director: I cannot answer your question when that will happen. I guess that I
do want to comment that what the evidence suggests that those antidepressant
drugs increased risk for violence and for suicide. So when you talk about
causes, I want to be sure that we understand what we mean by that, and that
is, that it increases the risk. It is true that Eric Harris was using Luvox but
it is also true that Dylan was not.
Ann Blake Tracy wrote in response: [This statement is not true. More correct would be to say that Dylan’s toxicology report was never disclosed as all his records were sealed early in the case. Why still remains to be answered when this was a case involving homicides.]
Lisa VanSyckle: But if you look at the medication guide and I will be more
than happy to provide a copy to you. The FDA says to monitor a child for
agitation, aggression, violent behavior, changes in mood and behavior. Agitation
and aggression – that is bringing a knife to school.
Agitation and aggression is beating up another child. I lived the nightmare. I know how violent
and suicidal a child can become due to the side effect of a medication. My
daughter did not have depression, she had Lyme’s Disease. You need to look at
the issue. With 11 million children prescriptions being prescribed and if one
out of 50 children will become violent and suicidal on these medications, we
need to take a more serious look at the issue.
Attorney General Gonzales: What I would like to do I know that the Secretary
of Health and Human Services would be very interested in this issue if he is
not looking at it already.
Lisa VanSyckle: I would love that because I brought some more information
for you and Mr. Gonzales thank you for your time.
I know how violent and suicidal patients will become We need to take a more
serious look at this issue.”
Jenny Hatch
PS Anybody hear yet which Anti-Depressant that dude in Pennsylvania was on???