A French study reveals which medications are most often associated with violence and aggression: Prescribed drugs and violence.
The authors trawled the French records of drug side effects from 1985 to 2008. By law, doctors in France must report any adverse event which is either serious, or unexpected, to the authorities.
They found a total of 540 reports mentioning "violence", but only 56 of these were clear-cut incidents of physical aggression towards others. Suicide and self-harm were not included, unless they also involved violence to other people.
There were 76 suspect drugs (because some reports included one or more). Here's the Hall of Shame:
16 reports involved benzodiazepines (Valium) or similar drugs.13 implicated dopamine-boosting drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease.4 were caused by serotonin-based antidepressants like Prozac. Older antidepressants were not associated.
Antipsychotics and anti-epileptics were also high on the list.
There were also reports involving and the antiviral drugs ...
