Police released some details of the toxicology report from the Virginia Tech killer’s body, and found no trace of any prescription, or illicit, medication. Nor were there any found in his home. Almost immediately after the shootings there were antipsychiatry activists claiming that antidepressants drove him to it, but that inflammatory rhetoric has now been disproven.
“Tod Burke, professor of criminal justice at Radford University, said the toxicology report isn’t surprising, and anyone who thought the presence of drugs in Cho’s blood system might somehow better explain his deadly actions was trying “to make sense out of nonsense.”
“Obviously there was a problem, and it was a psychological problem,” Burke said. “Even if he was on medication, his behavior still was unusual during his time at Virginia Tech. Sometimes an orange is just an orange.”
Millions of people take antidepressants without ever committing any type of violent act. Coincidentally, new research into campus mental health services revealed that 37 to 84 percent (depending on the disorder) of students with problems were not utilizing free services. One reason cited was “skepticism about effectiveness.” Portraying medications as a type of Jekyll and Hyde trigger only contributes to that skepticism, stigma and reluctance to seek help.
Read more about the toxicology report.
Read more about the campus mental health research.
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University Update - Virginia Tech - Cho wasn’t on meds (6/25/2007)
4 Comments to
“Cho wasn’t on meds”
The VA Tech investigation is likely to become even more of a political and social beachball. Was Cho supposed to be taking medications? The argument will now be that they would have solved all his anger problems.
- Michael from The US Desk at TheNewsRoom.com
Nobody who is a mental health professional would make that argument. Drugs don’t solve someone’s anger problems, it takes therapy (possibly in combination with meds, but antidepressants aren’t for anger) and a lot of self-motivated work.
I looked at your article here, and if I am not censored here and not allowed to post I would like to say that the newspapers reported that this boy as reported from some of the people that lived in his dorm was taking pills of some sort, I can’t say what I am not sure, I also looked at your links and found them not working and no information leading to the facts that you present here as far as him not taking them. You are right some people do take things that are mind altering if they are called medicine or street drugs, the fact is no they don’t, and only the very rare few might do what Cho did. These drugs do cause problems and more problems then they solve and will ever solve that is where I take exception with you. These are not safe things to use no matter what. They have major side affects and they also are addictive and they also can cause people to do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do, some of those things can be violent. I would also like to say though that some people also do violent things without being on any drugs or alcohol, they are cold hearted and that is the worst kind of person you can find, they are not making a mistake, nor are they upset, nor are they out of their mind, they are cold, cruel, calculating and they just don’t care what they do or to who or how. That is the kind of person that is considered a very good person until they don’t want to be.
Thanks for your comment, Janie. We do not censor people.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 25 Jun 2007
