Misleading claims made to legislators from special interests may hinder vital data collection on psychiatric drugs linked to suicide and violence, urging legislators to advance transparent toxicology reporting for public safety.
By CCHR International
The Mental Health Industry Watchdog
October 24, 2025
CCHR is urging legislators to ensure that policy decisions are guided by evidence, not misinformation from vested interests. The call follows testimony before the Wyoming Joint Labor, Health & Social Services Committee, which recently considered—but postponed—sponsorship of the proposed Wyoming Death Data Collection and Toxicology Transparency Act. Similar to Tennessee’s new law, the measure would require coroners to test for and report the presence of psychiatric drugs in suicides and violent deaths—using only anonymous, aggregate data. This information would provide lawmakers with transparent, population-level evidence that can improve public safety.
Although the bill focuses solely on non-identifiable population-level reporting, the committee declined to sponsor it as a full committee bill, instead allowing individual legislators to reintroduce it—keeping the proposal alive for future debate.
Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International, who submitted a written statement to the Committee, said there was “a shocking amount of disinformation presented to lawmakers during the hearing by state officials and psychiatric representatives opposing this important public-awareness bill.” She added, “Such resistance reflects a broader national pattern of efforts by psychiatric-pharmaceutical interests to suppress information about the risks of these drugs.”
Evidence Ignored
Laramie County Coroner Rebecca Reid testified that “if someone is taking their medication like they’re supposed to, ten to one they’re not gonna die by suicide.”[1] Yet, in stark contrast, an April 2025 University of East London analysis of nearly 8,000 UK coroners’ inquests found antidepressants were linked to 2,718 hangings, 933 overdoses, and 979 suicides.[2]
Further, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required black-box warnings on antidepressants since 2004—the agency’s most severe warning label—citing increased suicide risk for individuals up to age 24.[3] A 2023 study in Neuropsychopharmacology confirmed SSRIs triple the risk of suicide attempts among minors and double it in young adults.[4]
Internationally respected researcher Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche concluded in the BMJ that, “It can no longer be doubted that antidepressants are dangerous and can cause suicide and homicide at any age.” He cited drug-induced agitation, impulsivity, and aggression in both adults and children.[5]
Similarly, psychopharmacology expert Professor David Healy has shown that SSRI antidepressants cause one in four healthy volunteers to become agitated or suicidal. He identifies a potential principal influencing factor behind both suicide and violence in those taking antidepressants as drug-induced agitation—seen in about 5% of subjects in clinical trials, compared to only 0.5% among those on placebos.[6]
This finding is highly relevant to Wyoming, as CCHR pointed out in its submission. In 2019, about 11.8 percent of Wyoming’s 578,759 residents—roughly 68,000 people—were prescribed antidepressants. Based on Healy’s data, more than 3,000 people could experience agitation severe enough to increase the risks of self-destructive or violent behavior. CCHR argues that this underscores the public-safety importance of the proposed toxicology transparency bill.
Wyoming juries have already acknowledged such risks. In 2001, a Cheyenne jury found the antidepressant Paxil (paroxetine) was a substantial factor in Donald Schell—a man with no mental or violent history—killing his wife, daughter, and granddaughter within days of being prescribed the drug. The jury determined from evidence that paroxetine “can cause some people to become homicidal and/or suicidal” and that the drug was 80 percent responsible for the ensuing acts.[7]
Similar court findings worldwide have connected antidepressant or stimulant use to psychosis, suicide, and homicide.
- Joseph Wesbecker (Kentucky): Under the influence of Prozac, he killed eight co-workers and wounded twelve; the coroner concluded Prozac “in certain individuals has caused a violent, hostile type of reaction.”[8]
- Ryan Ehlis (North Dakota): Shot his infant daughter while on the stimulant Adderall; the court accepted evidence from a psychiatrist and the drug’s manufacturer that the drug induced a psychotic state, which the drug label states is possible.[9]
- David Hawkins (Australia, 2001): A judge found the antidepressant Zoloft likely caused a father with no prior history of violence to kill his wife and other family members, concluding the crime “would not have occurred” without the drug.[10]
Case Illustrates Gaps in Oversight
While discussion in the hearing briefly referenced a recent case of mass violence in Cheyenne, the psychiatric drugs potentially involved were not addressed. In February 2025, Tranyelle Harshman, a mother from Cheyenne who had been prescribed ketamine (a hallucinogenic anesthetic not FDA-approved for psychiatric disorders) and the sedative-hypnotic clonazepam, killed her four daughters. Her husband told reporters he blamed “mental illness,” unwittingly repeating the notion that such violence stems from “chemical imbalances”—a theory thoroughly debunked, including by psychiatrist Dr. Joanna Moncrieff’s 2022 comprehensive review of antidepressant studies published in Molecular Psychiatry, which found no evidence whatsoever that depression is caused by low serotonin.[11] Ketamine’s known side effects include hallucinations, delirium, and dissociation—all of which can severely distort perception and judgment.
The FDA’s adverse-event database lists more than 1,500 reports of homicide or homicidal ideation linked to psychiatric medications, reinforcing the need for accurate data collection and disclosure.
Scientific Accuracy Matters
During the Wyoming hearing, psychiatrist Dr. David Fohrman claimed that antidepressants require time to “make new RNA and DNA” in the brain before taking effect. That is not how these drugs are understood to act.[12]
There is no scientific evidence proving that antidepressants create new DNA or RNA. The FDA states in official product information for many antidepressants that they do not produce genotoxic effects—meaning they do not damage or alter genetic material. [13]
In simple terms:
- Genotoxic means a substance can damage DNA or chromosomes.
- Mutagenic means it can permanently cause a mutation or change in DNA.
Because antidepressants have shown no genotoxic or mutagenic effects, they do not create, repair, or rewrite DNA.
CCHR emphasized that statements implying antidepressants repair DNA are scientifically unfounded and risk misleading policymakers. Transparency and accuracy are essential when public safety is at stake.
Despite championing the use of psychiatric drugs, Fohrman himself admitted a critical point: “once you take more than three medications, it’s hard to predict what is going to happen,” acknowledging that “polypharmacy could be a…significant problem.”[14]
Call for Informed, Transparent Policy
Measures like the Wyoming Death Data Collection and Toxicology Transparency Act are vital because they would allow legislators to monitor the prevalence of psychiatric drugs in suicides and cases of violence through confidential, anonymous aggregate data. Wyoming already requires autopsies in cases of violent or criminal acts[15], and adding tests for antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs would involve routine toxicology screening. Testimony during the hearing raises legitimate concerns over whether such tests are currently being performed at all.
Public access to aggregated, de-identified toxicology data would not breach privacy laws but would help ensure transparency about how often psychiatric drugs are present in such tragedies—an area the FDA has long acknowledged as relevant—rather than allowing the issue to be obscured behind vague attributions to “mental illness.”
“It is unacceptable that unsupported and speculative claims were presented as ‘fact’ in a policy hearing,” Eastgate said. “Legislators must be equipped with verified evidence—not professional opinion misrepresented as science. Evidence-based transparency is essential to protect families and save lives. The Wyoming bill remains urgently needed.”
[1] “Wyoming Coroner Claims, 10 to 1 If You Are Taking Your Psych Meds Correctly You Won’t Die, Bill Fails to Test for Psych Drugs After Death,” AbleChild, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.ablechild.org/2025/10/19/wyoming-coroner-claims-10-to-1-if-you-are-taking-your-psych-meds-correctly-you-wont-die-bill-fails-to-test-for-psych-drugs-after-death/
[2] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/04/24/new-study-links-suicides-to-antidepressants-reinforcing-fdas-black-box-warning/; John Read, Ph.D., “Antidepressants and Suicide: 7,829 Inquests in England and Wales, 2003–2020,” Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023, Vol. 25, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1891/EHPP-2022-0015, https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrehpp/25/1/8
[3] https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/suicidality-children-and-adolescents-being-treated-antidepressant-medications; https://www.thepharmaletter.com/us-fda-to-update-black-box-warnings-for-young-adults-taking-antidepressants
[4] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/09/12/new-study-confirms-child-and-youth-suicide-risk-with-antidepressants/; Lagerberg, T., Matthews, A. A., Zhu, N., Fazel, S., Carrero, J. J., & Chang, Z. (2023), “Effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment following diagnosis of depression on suicidal behaviour risk: A target trial emulation,” Neuropsychopharmacology, 28 July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01676-3
[5] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/09/12/new-study-confirms-child-and-youth-suicide-risk-with-antidepressants/; Peter C Gøtzsche, “Antidepressants and murder: case not closed,” BMJ, 2 Aug. 2017, https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3697/rr-4
[6] David Healy, Andrew Herxheimer, and David B Menkes, “Antidepressants and Violence: Problems at the Interface of Medicine and Law.” PLoS Medicine, Sept. 2006, 3(9): e372, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1564177/; https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=genera_evelyn_p_061207_experts_battle_over_.htm
[7] Ibid, David Healy
[8] Andrew Wolfson, “Prozac maker paid millions to secure favorable verdict in mass shooting lawsuit, victims say,” USA Today, 12 Sept.2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/12/prozac-makers-secret-payment-mass-shooting-lawsuit-revealed/2302888001/; Neal Knox Report, “Mass Murder Link,” Shotgun News, Omaha, Nebraska, 10 Dec. 1989
[9] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/; “Man sues drugmaker for $100,000,” Deseret News, 24 Sept. 2000, https://www.deseret.com/2000/9/24/19530492/man-sues-drugmaker-for-100-000; Sarah Bosely, “Family sues drug firm over baby killing,” The Guardian, 22 Feb 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/sep/23/sarahboseley
[10] Sarah Boseley, “Prozac class drug blamed for killing,” The Guardian (London), 2 May 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/may/26/sarahboseley
[11] https://www.today.com/parents/mother-murder-suicide-byron-tranyelle-harshman-rcna192645; https://www.ktvq.com/neighborhood-news/northern-wyoming/toxicology-report-show-ketamine-in-wyoming-moms-system-before-murder-suicide; Joanna Moncrieff, Ruth E. Cooper, Tom Stockmann, Simone Amendola, Michael P. Hengartner and Mark A. Horowitz, “The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence,” Molecular Psychiatry, 20 July 2022, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
[12] “Wyoming Coroner Claims, 10 to 1 If You Are Taking Your Psych Meds Correctly You Won’t Die, Bill Fails to Test for Psych Drugs After Death,” AbleChild, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.ablechild.org/2025/10/19/wyoming-coroner-claims-10-to-1-if-you-are-taking-your-psych-meds-correctly-you-wont-die-bill-fails-to-test-for-psych-drugs-after-death/
[13] https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2021/020031s077lbl.pdf
[14] “Wyoming Coroner Claims, 10 to 1 If You Are Taking Your Psych Meds Correctly You Won’t Die, Bill Fails to Test for Psych Drugs After Death,” AbleChild, 19 Oct. 2025, https://www.ablechild.org/2025/10/19/wyoming-coroner-claims-10-to-1-if-you-are-taking-your-psych-meds-correctly-you-wont-die-bill-fails-to-test-for-psych-drugs-after-death/
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