Regarding the drug FANAPT.

[progressoid]

I did a little googling and can find no credible source that says that Adam Lanza was taking this drug.

There are plenty of people asking "Was Adam Lanza taking Fanapt?" But no actual verification.
Apparently even the Daily Mail (a hallmark of journalistic excellence ) has removed their reference to it.

I'm not trying to defend the drug or "big pharma". Just trying to get the facts.


edited to add: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022011674#post148

[janlyn]

1. thanks

The last thing we need is more people jumping to conclusions, we have enough of that going on with the media.

[Purveyor]

2. Perhaps but it is a safe bet to make that he has been on 'scripts' for a very long time. eom

[MADem]

3. It is a drug that treats schizophrenia...I've never heard of it.

About Fanapt
What if Fanapt is the medication you've been looking for?
Trial and error is a challenge everyone with schizophrenia faces while working with his or her doctor to find the right treatment.
Fanapt is a type of prescription medicine used for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. Fanapt has been shown to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Fanapt tablets are indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults.
Deciding to look at alternate medications is something your doctor may do. They need to consider that Fanapt may change your heart rhythm (meaning there is more time between heartbeats). When taking other drugs that may cause this same change in heart rhythm, you are at a higher risk of a serious, even life-threatening medical issue (torsade de pointes), which may result in sudden death. In many cases, your doctor may prescribe another medicine to treat schizophrenia before trying Fanapt.
Please see additional Important Safety Information below.
Fanapt needs to be taken as directed, starting at a low dose and slowly increasing the strength. This may delay the control of symptoms in the first 1 to 2 weeks of treatment. Treatment with Fanapt for longer than 6 weeks has not been evaluated. Your doctor will evaluate the long-term usefulness of Fanapt for you.

http://www.fanapt.com/info/about-fanapt.jsp

Apparently, Adam Lanza's UNCLE is the source of this medication claim:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/aspergers-is-a-red-herring-to-explain-newtown.html

Adam Lanza's mother had been increasingly concerned over her son's well-being in the weeks before the tragedy, telling a friend just a week before that he was "getting worse" and that "she was losing him," the New York Daily News reported. That report makes no mention of Asperger's syndrome, but it cites Adam's uncle who said he was taking an anti-psychotic drug called Fanapt. The Atlantic points out that several diagnoses have been bandied about in the press, including autism, Asperger's, and "personality disorder."

[progressoid]

4. NYmagazine is citing the Daily Mail which has no mention of Fanapt or an Uncle

They seem to have scrubbed any reference to it. I think they got punked. And so did DU.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nancy-lanza-feared-son-adam-worse-article-1.1221505

[RomneyLies]

8. We got punked on the father of the Batman shooter and Lanza's father testifying on LIBOR, too.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/newtown-libor-hunger-games-theories.php?ref=fpa

[progressoid]

12. Well, I missed out on the fun there.

I can't believe there is misinformation on the intertubes. Shocking.

[MADem]

9. There are still vestiges of it all over the net--see here:

http://www.nyctn.com/a376622-exclusive-nancy-lanza-feared-son-adam-was-getting-worse-told-friend-he-was-burning-himself-with-a-lighter-and-that-she-was-losing-him

Back in September, Lanza and her disturbed son seemed happy at a family barbecue in Danbury, Conn., according to Adam’s uncle Jonathan Lanza.

“I’m just in shock right now. It’s like a nightmare. It’s so surreal,” said the uncle, 39.


Adam, he said, was taking the anti-psychotic drug, Fanapt, but had never showed any violent tendencies.

“He is shy. He never yells at no one. He would help her with dishes, laundry, groceries, picking up sticks, everything and anything possible,” Lanza said of his notorious nephew. “He never yelled at her, and she never yelled at him. It’s not like they had a rocky relationship.What made him snap? Was it the medication?”

It does look like the NYDN did report that and they've retracted it for whatever reason....perhaps the person in the photo at the link in this post isn't really an uncle, or they could not verify his status...or maybe this guy is the bullshitter that the police were complaining about yesterday...?


A man who identified himself as Jonathan Lanza, the uncle of shooter Adam Lanza, tops by a memorial to pay his respects in Sandy Hook after 27 people, including 20 children, perished in a horrific school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

[progressoid]

10. Yep. Click the "read more" button at the bottom and it goes right back to the Daily Mail article.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. It looks like he's a known hoaxer - involved in an Aurora hoax too

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2012406 .

And as regards the 'LIBOR' hoax RomneyLies mentions in #8, well, I saw that one was dodgy too: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2008857

[MADem]

18. That second one stunk from fifty paces--the drug one, though, that was more cleverly executed! nt

[Honeygirl]

5. The info was deleted from the NY Daily News article.

Yesterday, in the NY Daily News, it was mentioned that Adam was on Fanapt. This info was removed today (Big Pharma must have gotten to them).

[LisaL]

13. WTF does it have to do with big pharma?

[hrmjustin]

14. Welcome to DU and I hope you enjoy the site.

[progressoid]

15. Big Pharma got to the Daily Mail?

Ooookay.

[Honeygirl]

6. The link Progressold gave is the one I was referring to.

And these anti-depressants/anti-psychotics are involved in the mass murders in the past (Columbine, etc.)
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/revealing-the-link-ssris-and-school-shootings/question-2330457/

[pnwmom]

7. Anti-depressants shouldn't be linked with anti-psychotics as if they were the same.

OF COURSE some people have psychotic symptoms who are taking anti-psychotics. Doctors prescribe anti-psychotics for people with psychotic symptoms, but unfortunately, they don't eliminate all symptoms in all patients. Thus, there are people who take anti-psychotics who report having psychotic symptoms.

[pinto]

16. I think I'd rely on more than an anonymous blogger's post at Sodahead for clinical info.

[libdem4life]

17. Anti-depressants and anti-psychotics are very different. And the psych world knows the difference

One is closer to a super aspirin, the other to mental hospital meds. That is an exaggeration, to be sure, but should illustrate the difference. Anti-depressants don't usually produce psychotic events, but the other definitely can. Why? Because the root causes are different. One does not get to the anti-psychotic until they are psychotic.

Someone depressed because they didn't get a job or lost a boyfriend is different that someone who has had psychologically developmental and social aberrations issues since childhood, or after a brain concussion. It's time people understood...there is a difference.

The hand-wringing and blaming and psycho-crap such as is on this site has made it most difficult to get someone diagnosed, let alone medicated. It is an extremely inexact science requiring professional guessing and increasingly, professional decisions not to become involved.

Anyone who knows of someone in Nancy Lanza's position...knows about the potential risks and the benefits of heavy meds, not in a mental institution. Why not in an institution? Because there aren't any. It's now called...The Home, and often Mom's responsibility.

The other option is Prison. That is where many mental patients now reside.