Suicide by Airbus???

Of the 7,244 fatal airplane crashes in the United States from 1993 through 2012, 24 were the result of aircraft-assisted suicide, the authors concluded in the 2014 study published in the journal "Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine."


That's 0.33 percent, and they noted that most of these flights were private, not commercial.

Medical records indicate that Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who crashed the Germanwings plane last week in the French Alps, was on medications for depression, anxiety and panic attacks, including lorazepam, a tranquilizer that can have dangerous side effects, German newspaper Bild reported. Federal drug information advises that “patients receiving lorazepam should be warned not to operate dangerous machinery or motor vehicles” and that “in patients with depression, a possibility for suicide should be borne in mind.”

Lubitz, 27, was also reportedly taking an antidepressant, Reuters reported. He lied to his doctors, saying that he was taking sick leave rather than working and flying planes. When he resumed pilot training in 2009, he provided medical papers showing a “previous episode of severe depression,” Lufthansa, the parent company of Germanwings, confirmed Tuesday.

Lorazepam is a drug that is typically prescribed to treat anxiety that works by “slowing activity in the brain to allow for relaxation,” according to an information page by the National Institutes of Health. The NIH warned that the drug can be “habit-forming,” or addictive, and should not be stopped suddenly, as doing so can cause “anxiousness, sleeplessness, and irritability.” There are a host of side effects, including restlessness and blurred vision.

The Food and Drug Administration’s drug information page for Ativan, a brand name for lorazepam, noted that the drug’s effectiveness for long-term use -- a period defined as more than four months -- has yet to be clinically assessed. It remains unclear how long Lubitz had taken the drug. The FDA warned that “pre-existing depression may emerge or worsen during use of benzodiazepines [a class of tranquilizer drugs that includes Valium and Xanax], including lorazepam.” It highlighted as well that lorazepam can have an even more depressive effect depending on what other drugs are taken simultaneously. Brand names for lorazepam include Ativan and Lorazepam Intensol.

That is utter bullsh#t. Meds do not turn people into murderers. If so, produce the studies that indicate this.

You won't. There are none.

no Fear, you havent. you may have seen psychotics episodes, but you have no way of knowing what caused them. thats what science does, aint youve got none to back you up. and no, PCP isnt what we're talking about here. or glue huffing. irrelevant.

“Even at normal doses, taking psychiatric drugs can produce suicidal thinking, violent behavior, aggressiveness, extreme anger, hostility, irritability, loss of ability to control impulses, rage reactions, hallucinations, mania, acute psychotic episodes, akathisia, and bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder.

“Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs can cause agitation, severe depression, hallucinations, aggressiveness, hypomania, akathisia, fear, terror, panic, fear of insanity, failing self-confidence, restlessness, irritability, aggression, an urge to destroy and, in the worst cases, an urge to kill.” – From Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 296: “Drug Studies Connecting Psychotropic Drugs with Acts of Violence”.