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)

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 25 Jun 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.