It seems Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has set his sights on a new wild goose to chase. The US Secretary of Health and Human Services has made clear his intention to investigate whether antidepressant drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, may be to blame for mass shootings.
Last week, Kennedy announced via a post on X that she would task the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study “the long-taboo question of whether SSRIs and other psychoactive drugs contribute to mass violence.” But although more research on the topic may be worthwhile, many experts say the data so far does not support a causal link.
“SSRIs are generally safe and effective medications, and there is no strong evidence that these medications alone will cause violence in patients who are taking them,” Gregory Brown, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Communications, told Gizmodo.
SSRIs and gang violence
This is not the first time that RFK Jr. has brought up SSRIs as a potential factor in causing mass violence.
In late August, after a shooting at a school in Minnesota that left two students dead and dozens injured, Kennedy went on Fox News and said he would launch a study into what role SSRIs and other drugs used to treat mental illness might play in causing such incidents. In early September, during a conference announcing his “Make America Healthy Again” report on children, he made a similar promise, although he claimed that the National Institutes of Health would be in charge of this planned research.
The idea that psychiatric drugs can cause mass shootings is certainly not new. For example, about a decade ago, there was speculation that anti-anxiety medications may have contributed to the 2017 killing of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock.
Contrary to Kennedy’s insistence that scientists are afraid to study this topic, however, several studies have tried to look for a possible connection between the use of these drugs and gang violence.
For example, in a 2019 study, researchers studied reports of school shootings filed by the FBI between 2000 and 2017 (49 total). They found that most school shooters had no documented history of taking psychoactive medications. And even in cases when they did, researchers failed to find a “direct or causal relationship” with these drugs.
In another 2019 report, which examined data from 167 mass shootings collected by The Violence Project, researchers found that about 20% of shooters had used psychotropic medications, which was comparable to the rate of use among the general public (about 17%, according to a 2017 study).
And this September, a team of researchers led by Ragi Girgis, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, studied data from more than 800 mass shootings in the U.S. They found that only 4% of shooters had any lifetime history of using antidepressants, much lower than the general rate of use in the general population (12%), and 6.6% had used any psychotropic medication. Had used.
Following his comments in September, the California State Association of Psychiatrists (CSAP) also issued a clear rebuttal of RFK Jr.’s attempt to link SSRIs to mass shootings.
CSAP said, “This is not true. We are most concerned that statements like this could scare people away from getting the care they need and deserve.”
role of suicidal intent
Mass shootings are a complex phenomenon, and there are likely many explanations for those who commit these acts.
One of these explanations could be serious mental illness such as psychosis, although perhaps not to the extent that many would assume. A 2022 study by the same Columbia team found that only 5% of mass shootings may be linked to a serious mental illness such as psychosis.
Suicide appears to be a major mental health factor in mass shootings. About half of mass shooters will either kill themselves or try to provoke a fatal confrontation with law enforcement (“suicide by cop”), and perhaps about two-thirds express suicidal thoughts before or during the shooting.
According to Girgis, this factor may help explain why some research has found a possible association between antidepressant use and violence in general.
“They find a close relationship because people who are suicidal or violent also have a lot of depression. And people with worse depression are more likely to be treated with antidepressants. That’s why we see this relationship,” Girgis told Gizmodo. “But it’s not causal.”
While SSRIs carry a warning label claiming that they may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in people under the age of 25, this one is controversial. Many researchers, including Girgis, now argue otherwise (or at least that the warnings have done more harm than good), and some studies have actually found that SSRIs may reduce the risk of suicide in young people. Notably, Girgis’ study this September found no difference in the rate of mass shooters dying by suicide whether or not they were taking antidepressants.
During a Fox News interview in August, RFK Jr. also appeared to claim that SSRIs carry a black box warning that they may increase the risk of homicidal intent. Whether he spoke wrong or deliberately spread lies, it is simply not true.
search for scapegoat
Girgis argues that at least some of the reason why people may latch onto SSRIs as a factor behind mass shootings is sensationalism.
He said, “I think incidents like this, when there is news of a mass shooter taking psychiatric medication or having a psychiatric condition, make the incident more headline-grabbing and more attention-grabbing. That’s one of the reasons it gets attention.”
Still others may want to blame these incidents on mental health or the medications used to treat it because it would distract from more relevant factors, such as the widespread prevalence of firearms in the US or the ease with which one can obtain them.
All that said, the experts I spoke to still welcome more research on the topic, provided it’s done well.
Brown said, “Although I cannot predict the outcomes of any future research studies, ongoing research efforts – especially unbiased peer-reviewed research – can often provide useful information about the safety and efficacy of psychotropic medications.”
The trouble is, we’re talking about RFK Jr. here. Since taking over HHS, Kennedy has repeatedly emphasized the scientific process to advance his agenda. He has unilaterally dismissed outside experts on vaccine safety, installed allies sympathetic to the anti-vaccination movement, and reportedly fired former CDC head Susan Monarez when she refused to rubberstamp policy changes recommended by the latter group.
Recently, he and President Donald Trump have tried to officially attribute autism to acetaminophen use during pregnancy – an explanation that many experts and health officials do not support. The FDA is trying to introduce a labeling change for acetaminophen products that would warn pregnant women about the alleged autism risk, even as Kennedy acknowledged he doesn’t yet have evidence of a causal link.
The above may be the clearest example of what could happen if RFK Jr. got his SSRI study off the ground. The overall evidence so far does not point to these drugs being major culprits in mass shootings. But that alone won’t stop Kennedy and the Trump White House from claiming otherwise.