Health Secretary Kennedy’s Claim Linking Antidepressants to School Shootings Lacks Evidence, Experts Say

In the aftermath of a tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis that claimed the lives of two students and injured 21 others, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reignited controversial claims about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) potentially contributing to mass violence.

Speaking on “Fox & Friends” the day after the August 27 shooting, Kennedy announced that his department was “launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.” He further claimed these medications carry black box warnings for both “suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation.”

Medical experts and violence researchers, however, firmly reject any established link between SSRIs and mass shootings.

“There’s no relationship between SSRIs and mass shootings,” stated Dr. Ragy Girgis, a clinical psychiatrist at Columbia University who specializes in studying mass violence. Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, another Columbia psychiatrist, concurred: “The available data do not suggest that SSRIs make [individuals] more likely to engage in mass shootings. Indeed, to the extent that SSRIs alleviate their distress, they may reduce the risk of violence.”

Kennedy’s claims about SSRIs having black box warnings for homicidal ideation are inaccurate. While these medications do carry warnings about increased risk of suicidal thinking in young people under 24, these warnings do not extend to homicidal thoughts or behavior. Importantly, these warnings note that depression itself raises suicide risk, and the warning is not equivalent to increased risk of completed suicide.

This isn’t the first time Kennedy has made such assertions. In a 2023 conversation with Elon Musk, he claimed there is “tremendous circumstantial evidence” that “SSRIs and benzos and other drugs” are causing school shootings. He has repeatedly stated that mass shootings were virtually nonexistent before the introduction of Prozac (fluoxetine), the first FDA-approved SSRI, in 1987.

Historical data contradicts this claim. James Densley, co-founder of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline University, called Kennedy’s assertion “historically and demonstrably false.” Mass shootings, including those at schools, occurred prior to 1987, although they have become more frequent over time.

Multiple comprehensive databases tracking mass shootings fail to support any connection to SSRI usage. The Columbia Mass Murder Database shows only about 4% of U.S. mass shooters over the last three decades had ever taken antidepressants, and just 7% had any history of psychotropic medication use.

“We discovered psychotropic medication use among perpetrators of mass shootings to be far below rates in the general population,” Girgis and colleagues reported in a recent letter published in Psychiatry Research.

Similarly, the Violence Project’s database shows that 11% of mass shooters had taken SSRIs, closely matching the general population rate of 13% for adult antidepressant use reported by the CDC. A 2019 review of school shootings between 2000 and 2017 also found most perpetrators had not been treated with psychiatric medications.

While some studies have identified associations between SSRI treatment and general violence, researchers caution against drawing causal conclusions. A 2020 Swedish study found an association between SSRI dispensation and violent crime convictions, but the authors explicitly warned that their results “should not be used as reason to withhold SSRI treatment from patients who may benefit from it, especially as causality remains unclear.”

International comparisons further undermine Kennedy’s claims. Countries with the highest rates of antidepressant use, including Iceland and Canada, have very low rates of gun homicide and virtually no mass shootings.

Dr. Seena Fazel, a co-author of the Swedish study, emphasized that their research “will not be directly relevant to mass shootings” given Sweden’s strict gun regulations, adding he was “not aware of this having been studied in a way that would allow definitive conclusions.”

As authorities continue investigating the Minneapolis tragedy, no information has been released regarding whether the shooter, identified as Robin Westman, was taking SSRIs or any psychiatric medication. Experts maintain that America’s high incidence of mass shootings is more likely related to gun availability than psychiatric medication use.