00:00:00.000The anti-anxiety drug, which is currently prescribed to more than 8 million Britons, is linked to nearly 3,400 deaths.
00:00:08.420These are dangerous, highly potent, psychotropic drugs.
00:00:12.880Here's a report from the Tennessee Star as we continue to follow the revelations about the Covenant shooter.
00:00:21.600And, of course, we had our report a few days ago, based on writings that were obtained by the Daily Wire, making the motives of the Covenant shooter, as the motives become clearer and clearer, and also the motives for covering it up also become clearer and clearer.
00:00:54.220Fifth medication prescribed to Covenant killer Audrey Hale was an anti-anxiety drug associated with mania, hostility, and irritability.
00:01:03.700It says, a photograph of medication bottles prescribed to Covenant school killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale reveals that she was given a fifth, previously unknown prescription.
00:01:12.720This is in addition to the four medications previously reported by the Tennessee Star.
00:01:16.580The image of the prescription bottles obtained by the Star, from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, depict four orange, semi-transparent prescription bottles with blue lids and white labels.
00:01:28.180All of the bottles are prescribed to Audrey E. Hale and bear the name of a psychiatric nurse practitioner who runs a practice based in Nashville.
00:01:35.140An additional image of a receipt suggests at least one medication was prescribed by a Nashville psychiatrist who also operates his own practice.
00:01:43.860The third and fourth prescription bottles bear the names of medications the Star reported after obtaining the Metro Nashville Police Department affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where Hale was a 22-year mental health patient.
00:01:57.880However, the second prescription bottle is labeled Lorazepam, which is also known as Ativan, an anti-anxiety medication.
00:02:09.240Hale was not previously known to be taking this medication, and the partially visible instructions shown on the prescription bottle in the photograph suggests Hale took one tablet daily.
00:02:17.480It was previously established by the Star that Hale was prescribed the anti-anxiety medication Buspirone, the allergy and anti-anxiety medication Hydroxazine, and the antidepressant Lexapro under its generic name is Scatalopram.
00:02:35.840Okay, so this is prescription number five, and this is a drug, again, known to be associated with mania, hostility, and irritability.
00:02:49.840Five prescriptions this person was on that we know of.
00:02:55.680And all of them, or the majority of them, or the majority of them that we know of, were apparently supposed to be helping with anxiety, are supposed to be helping with mental health issues.
00:03:13.820And at the same time, these are also drugs, at least in particular this latest one, that has known side effects.
00:03:30.100And one of the side effects is hostility.
00:03:33.680You know, we've talked about this plenty of times on the show.
00:03:35.840I did a big monologue about it several months ago.
00:03:42.240We find this is very often the case where you have these mass shooters, and you have to distinguish here because, you know, FBI data and the media, sometimes when they talk about mass shootings, they tend to lump together things like this, school shooting type mass shootings, with like gang violence in the city.
00:04:04.540And those things are similar in terms of body count, similar in terms of, you know, how violent and terrible they are.
00:04:14.320It's not like one is necessarily worse than the other.
00:04:18.620Well, I mean, I think a school shooting, in many ways, is worse than gang violence.
00:04:25.220But in terms of body count, the number of people that are being killed, you know, those with a similarity's end.
00:04:32.300But I think we all understand intuitively that there is a distinction here.
00:04:37.320There's a certain type of mass killing.
00:04:39.380You know, gang violence is one type, and then there's this kind of mass killing.
00:04:46.680And when it comes to this kind of mass killing, what you find so often is that these killers are on these kinds of drugs, antidepressants, anti-anxiety.
00:04:57.340And very often, these are drugs that are known to have, as side effects, violence, aggression, hostility.
00:06:11.340When you have these doctors and psychiatrists who do this.
00:06:15.640Just throw pill after pill at the problem.
00:06:18.320When they're so clearly, there are all kinds of underlying problems here and issues, and just throw them pills at them.
00:06:29.880And then when something horrific like this happens, there is no accountability for any of the people that were handing these drugs out like candy.
00:06:43.640How an anti-anxiety drug, which is currently prescribed to more than 8 million Britons, is linked to nearly 3,400 deaths in the past five years.
00:06:53.600An anti-anxiety drug, reading now from the article, which is prescribed to more than 8 million people in Britain, has been linked to thousands of deaths in the past five years.
00:07:02.460Concerns have been raised about the impact of pregabillin, which is used by doctors to treat anxiety as well as epilepsy and nerve pain, with one saying prescribing it is like selling a car without brakes.
00:07:17.840Use of the drug can lead to dependency, with some people becoming addicted to the euphoria that taking it can cause, while others become reliant on the relaxed feelings it can induce.
00:07:31.700Those who have become addicted to it have compared it to trying to wean themselves off morphine and oxycodone, two drugs notorious for the ill effects they have on people who try to quit.
00:07:40.040Pregabillin users have told MailOnline that the drug has led to erratic behavior, blurred vision, mood swings, and suicidal thoughts, with many now desperate to lower their dosage or come off the medication that has robbed them of their lives altogether.
00:07:52.540It's been linked to nearly 3,400 deaths in Britain in the past five years alone.
00:07:56.960The drug involved in 779 fatalities in 2022, up from just nine a decade earlier in 2012.
00:08:05.980And so there's been a few reports about this drug that I've seen recently.
00:08:10.040And all of the reports have focused on its prevalence overseas.
00:08:16.560I don't know how prevalent it is here in the United States.
00:08:20.800But, and this is just, you know, this is just the latest psychiatric drug that we're hearing about that have terrible side effects.
00:08:32.480And this is why, you know, people accuse me of being anti-psychiatric drugs.
00:08:40.680And I'm not, you know, because anti would mean that I'm taking the position that you should never prescribe it to anybody.
00:08:48.840That all psychiatric drugs are bad in all circumstances, and they should never be prescribed to anybody under any circumstance.
00:09:08.380Now, the difference, and that part, you know, when I say that, almost everybody would agree.
00:09:12.700Even the people that are on these drugs.
00:09:14.500Even people that are on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs.
00:09:16.720When they hear that, they'll go, oh yeah, it's way overprescribed.
00:09:18.860Except the problem is that it's like it's way overprescribed, and everybody who it's been prescribed to will agree that it's way overprescribed.
00:09:27.540Except that everyone who it's been prescribed to will say that it should have been prescribed to them.
00:10:39.580I mean it in the sense that 5 million people, just pulling a number out at random,
00:10:44.3405 million people are on a certain psychiatric drug, but it should only be like 500 people who are on it.
00:10:51.720Okay, that's what I mean by overprescribed.
00:10:52.840I mean that these drugs, there's a certain portion of these drugs that really just should not be on the market at all.
00:11:01.480And of the ones that have a valid application, it should be used in an absolute worst-case scenario.
00:11:10.960And worst-case scenario as in no other methods are effective, and it's the only way to stop someone from doing something drastic, destructive, or self-destructive.
00:11:26.920In that case, as a temporary, last-resort, band-aid measure, I can see a scenario where you use psychiatric drugs.
00:11:38.100And those kinds of situations do happen, where you've got someone and they're just, they're in a state of total self-destruction.
00:11:48.200And, and then, you know, you do whatever you have to do in that moment.
00:11:52.580It's like, you know, I don't think that we should be going around, like if someone is depressed,
00:11:59.300we shouldn't go and tackle them to the ground and drag them off to somewhere to get treatment.
00:12:03.640And, however, if somebody's on the edge of a building and is about to jump, then in that case, when it's your only option,
00:12:11.340then, yeah, you run up and you, and you tackle them.
00:12:13.520And then you end up probably, hopefully taking them somewhere to get, whether they want to or not,
00:12:17.580taking them somewhere to get, to get the help they need.
00:12:20.600And I, I kind of look at psychiatric drugs the same way, and that's how I think everyone should look at them.
00:12:25.540That's how I think the medical field should look at them.
00:12:30.700That's how they are, were originally meant to be used.
00:12:33.640Not as, like, a daily thing that millions of people take for their whole lives.
00:12:44.180And not, not, and not as a first resort, which is the other problem.
00:12:49.200To become a first resort, coming to someone who comes in, they're struggling with anxiety.
00:12:52.760Five seconds later, they got the prescription in their hand.
00:12:55.140And not for anyone who's dealing with, basically, the normal challenges of, of being a human being in the world.
00:13:12.480And that's why, when I read about anxiety drugs in particular, now, once again, there, there, there could be people who are basically crippled,
00:13:25.140totally dysfunctional, unable to function, where they feel like they are, living completely self-destructive lives,
00:13:34.200on the verge of, of, again, doing something drastic, potentially.
00:13:38.920And maybe, in that case, some of these anti-anxiety drugs could have a place.
00:13:42.620But, generally speaking, this is, you know, you know what it's used?
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00:16:24.360Well, yesterday we discussed the massive news laying bare yet another big pharma scam.
00:16:30.920And I would say, and this is quite a statement, but the greatest big pharma scam of all time, I think.
00:16:37.620When you look at the numbers involved, the money they've made off of it, and the damage caused, it is, again, it's saying a lot because there are a lot of them.
00:16:46.940But I think this is the greatest, the biggest big pharma scam of all time.
00:16:50.920And that is the claim that depression is rooted in a chemical imbalance in the brain.
00:16:58.740And that is the basis upon which millions and millions of Americans for decades have been prescribed antidepressants in order to cure this chemical imbalance.
00:17:08.080And now we find out that, well, that depression has nothing to do with a chemical imbalance.
00:18:18.860Psychiatrists have been aware for years that low serotonin levels may not cause depression despite continuing to prescribe the pills, a chair of psychology has said.
00:18:26.740Dr. Jonathan Raskin from State University of New York told DailyMail.com he'd been concerned that the theory that depression was caused by low serotonin levels was incomplete for a while.
00:18:36.300He said many medics continue to prescribe the medication even while they were unsure if they were effective because it was easier than offering more time-intensive care.
00:18:44.840The pills could still help some patients, he added, but they're not a cure-all for those suffering from depression.
00:18:51.420This week, a landmark UK study called into question society's ever-growing reliance on antidepressants like Prozac.
00:18:55.520And so then it reviews the study, which we're going to need to go over again.
00:19:02.980But the point is that this has been known by the psychiatrist.
00:19:07.020Quote, depression is a complicated issue, and the idea that we would be able to reduce it simply to serotonin is not right.
00:19:11.580When we give antidepressants, we don't do this based on biological tests showing they don't have enough serotonin, but if we think it could help them.
00:19:18.940Asked whether people should keep taking the pills, he said, I think that this is a conversation worth having.
00:19:26.980I'm not going to say people should or should not be on them, but I think there has been a lot of popular dissemination of the idea that we have reduced depression to low serotonin levels.
00:19:38.120Speaking of what people have known for years, there's an article in the Scientific American 11 years ago.
00:19:44.180Back in 2011, this is what was published.
00:19:48.940It says, in a New York Times essay in defense of antidepressants, Peter Kramer, professor of psychiatry at Brown, insists that antidepressants work ordinarily well on a par with other medications doctors prescribe.
00:20:01.140Kramer's article seeks to rebut a wave of negative coverage of antidepressants, most notably a two-part essay in the New York Review of Books by Marsha Engel, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and now a lecturer in social medicine at Harvard.
00:20:13.120Angel cites research suggesting that antidepressants may not be any more effective than placebos for treating most forms of depression.
00:20:21.520Angel highlights a meta-analysis carried out by the psychologist Irving Kirsch of trials of a half-dozen popular antidepressants submitted by drug companies to the FDA.
00:20:31.320Many of the studies were never published because they failed to yield positive results.