Mental Illness and Violence

This week, there was another tragic mass shooting event at a school in Georgia. In the wake of the violence, which is always so difficult to understand, there are always the typical responses from politicians and elected officials. Yet regardless of what your political beliefs lead you to think about these tragedies, there are one or two discussion points that frequently come up. Mental illness and SSRI medications.

First, let me say up front, as loud and as clear as possible, that mental illness doesn’t make someone violent. Indeed, individuals living with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes rather than perpetrators. While a lack of understanding around mental illness has allowed the idea that it causes violent behavior to persist, there is nothing in the science to support that. One of the missions of the LegalMind Society is to educate legal professionals about this so they can be more informed if they see these types of cases on their desks.

The other talking point is that SSRI medication, one of the most common classes of antidepressants currently available, cause these tragedies. Again, to be clear there is no support for that statement. Many mass shooters are not taking SSRI medications at the time of the shooting and even those that are have no evidence that the medication caused it. Some proponents of this theory point to certain studies that found a correlation between violent behaviors and SSRI use. However, correlation is not causation and those studies often admit that no causal link has been found. It is more likely that the two groups overlap in some areas, possibly due to other variables like violent traumas in their past.

Again, these tragedies are unthinkable horrors for so many of us. Unfortunately, the solutions are likely to be far from easy. Yet one place we can start is by pushing back against the lies that they are caused by mental illness or mental health medication.