Academic Regulation of Research: Human Subject restrictions

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Aug 26 08:11:40 PDT 2000


Michael Perelman wrote:


> 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski Was CIA Mind Control Subject!
> By Alexander Cockburn
> 7-9-99
> Amid all the finger-pointing to causes prompting the recent wave of schoolyard
> killings, not nearly enough clamor has been raised about the fact that many of
> these teenagers suddenly exploding into mania were on a regimen of
> antidepressants.Eric Harris, one of the shooters at Columbine, was on Luvox. Kip
> Kinkel, who killed his parents and two students in Oregon, was on Prozac.

If someone on insulin died there would be a strong presupposition that he/she died of diabetes or diabetic complications, not that insulin killed. There are times when Cockburn seems promising as a New York Times science writer -- and if as irresponsile an article as this appeared in the Times it might well be the occasion for a FAIR alert.

One note on Prozac. *Any* successful treatment for depression will lead to some suicides. No treatment provides instant relief. For any successful treatment there will be a period when the patient feels much better but still suffers. That is the point at which suicide is most likely. In the depths of depression one is too lacking in initiative to kill oneself. So most suicides occur during periods of recovery -- and this was the case long before Prozac or any other treatment for depression was available.

Any article which allows the suggestion that anti-depressants have an *immediate* impact on consciousness are very nearly criminal. It is the equivalent of someone claiming that one dose of an anti-biotic will cure TB in 24 hours. Anti-depressants have *no* immediate effect whatever. There are probably people dead today who would be alive if they had not been led by such shit as this to believe that Prozac or some other medication would have the same sort of immediate results as the various mind-altering drugs.

Carrol



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