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The Role of Medications (or Lack Thereof) in Recent Acts of Violence?

By Kristin Houle

An editorial that appeared earlier this week in the Dallas Morning-News ("Guns aren't only thing to blame in tragedies," February 18, 2008) sheds some light on why those suffering from mental illness might choose to stop taking their medications:"With clockwork predictability, we zeroed in on the source of the weapons used by the gunman in last week's appalling slaughter in an Illinois campus classroom. Where did he buy the guns? Why were they so easy to get? Can't we do more to keep guns away from people who are potentially disturbed?All reasonable questions, albeit politically difficult to answer. Here are some other questions, though, that perhaps should also be asked:Why did he stop taking his medicine? Wasn't he being monitored? Can't we do more to make people stay on the drugs that keep them sane and stable?I'm not saying these questions, which go to the heart of privacy and civil liberty, are any easier to resolve than the intractable and shopworn battle over firearms...continue to full post

Full post as published by Prevention Not Punishment on February 21, 2008 (boomark / email).