Why mentally ill people kill

Ninety-seven percent of mass shooters are male. They have beliefs ranging from misogyny www. Some are seeking revenge. Many have a history of domestic violence. All this, but a glaring statistic remains: Americans are 10 times more likely to die from gunfire www. Pursuing specific solutions to gun violence is also difficult. The Dickey Amendment has hindered research about gun violence at the CDC, leading to a paucity of evidence-based data.

But here's what we do know: We need to stop scapegoating mental illness every time someone commits mass murder. Patients with mental health issues are as diverse as those without.

Stripping away rights from people with conditions ranging from depression to ADHD to bipolar disorder to anxiety to substance abuse is tantamount to outright discrimination.

As I started writing this, I realized I wouldn't be able to say anything that has not already been said because legions of doctors and other health professionals have also spoken out about the mental health-mass shootings myth. But I'm adding my voice to the mix because this country has a growing problem with gun violence, www. Natasha Bhuyan, M. Since , the murder rate has decreased in the United States 16, in Most of the decrease is thought to be caused by a increased incarceration rates of career criminals; b fewer drug-related homicides, because of increased organization of the cocaine distribution; and c demographic factors, especially an aging population.

None of these would be likely to significantly affect the number of homicides committed by individuals with mental illnesses. On the other hand, since , public psychiatric services for individuals with mental illnesses have continued to deteriorate, and there are now many more such individuals who have been released from state psychiatric hospitals and who are not being treated.

Torrey, Violent behavior by individuals with serious mental illness, Hospital and Community Psychiatry —, This study of all homicides committed by severely mentally ill individuals reported by a single newspaper The Washington Post for the year found 13 such homicides.

It was assumed that this newspaper was covering stories for the metropolitan Washington, D. The total population of the United States in was million, or 85 times that of the Washington area. Since homicides by severely mentally ill individuals were being anecdotally reported throughout the United States, in rural areas as well as in urban areas, it was assumed that the Washington metropolitan area was representative of the entire United States.

The total number of homicides committed by severely mentally ill individuals in the United States in would therefore have been 1, 13 x This, of course, includes only those cases reported by the newspaper. Between and , the population of the United Sates increased from million to million. If the estimate was accurate, then in there would have been 1, homicides committed by individuals with severe mental illnesses in the United States. Harwood, A.

Ameen, G. Denmead et al. Thus, SPMI individuals with no substance abuse disorders were said to be responsible for no more than 3 percent of homicides, but individuals with SPMI and alcohol or drug abuse were responsible for between 9 and 15 percent of homicides. Given the only three studies done on this question to date, it seems reasonable to conservatively estimate that individuals with severe mental illnesses are responsible for approximately 1, homicides per year in the United States.

No studies exist to ascertain whether this number has decreased or increased since the — period when these studies were done. Anecdotal data suggest that the number has increased and is continuing to increase. In the first large study carried out in the United States, it has been reported that 10 percent of all homicides are committed by individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic illnesses, most of whom were not being treated.

The authors identified everyone in the Indiana state prison system who had been convicted of homicide between and , a total of 1, individuals. The records of a random sample of of these were examined, of which had sufficient information to ascertain whether or not they had received a psychiatric diagnosis. Among the individuals convicted of homicide, 53, or An additional 42 individuals had been diagnosed with mania or major depressive disorder, for a total of 95 individuals out of the studied, or In the wake of this weekend's double mass shootings -- one that claimed 22 lives in El Paso, Texas, another that left nine dead in Dayton, Ohio -- debate surged again over whether these incidents reflect some kind of failure by the mental health establishment.

In remarks Monday morning, President Trump blamed "hatred" and "mental illness" for the weekend shootings. But, perhaps anticipating this reaction, Sen. Chris Murphy D-Conn. And then he made a political point: "Framing this as just a mental illness problem is a gun industry trope. That prompted a variety of reactions from others on Twitter. Some agreed that it was a valuable point, in no small part because linking such events to mental illness serves to stigmatize everyone with a mental illness.

Others, however, questioned how it's possible that someone can kill a dozen or more strangers, more or less at random, and yet this doesn't in and of itself indicate a mental illness. Although Murphy did not cite his sources, one could have been a much-cited review by forensic psychiatrists James L. In their review, Knoll and Annas acknowledged that the public and the media find the question hard to resist.

As they put it rhetorically, "After all, who but a madman would execute innocent people in broad daylight, while planning to commit suicide or be killed by police?