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The Hartford Courant
December 28, 2013
By ALAINE GRIFFIN agriffin@courant.com and JOSH KOVNER jkovner@courant.com,
Buried in the thousands of pages of police reports released Friday into the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, new details about Adam Lanza’s mental health and his treatment have emerged, revealing that he was seen at the Yale Child Study Center in his early teens and was prescribed the antidepressant Celexa.
The case files also delve deeper into the actions that Peter Lanza took on behalf of his son, Adam, in the years before and after Peter Lanza’s divorce from Nancy Lanza in 2009. And the files reveal how Nancy Lanza appeared not to follow the advice of her son’s physicians, taking her son off his medication and failing to reschedule missed appointments.
The newly released reports come at a time when members of the state’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission have sharply criticized the recently released prosecutor’s summary of the investigation as lacking any real information about the mental health of the gunman who killed 20 first-graders and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012.
In August, Peter Lanza provided state police detectives with documents relating to Adam Lanza’s schooling and “psychological history,” according to the case files released Friday.
Included are emails between Peter Lanza and Kathleen Koenig, a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, “regarding her treatment sessions with the shooter, as well as an evaluation by” Dr. Paul Fox, a former Connecticut psychiatrist now living in New Zealand.
Details of a three-hour exam that Adam Lanza had in 2006 with another Yale Child Study psychiatrist, Dr. Robert A. King, were released for the first time Friday.
The Lanzas went to King after Peter Lanza sought help for his son through the Employee Assistance Program at his workplace, The General Electric Corp., according to a state police report.
Peter Lanza reported that his son told him when he was about 8 or 9 that he “loved being a kid,” but that when he turned about 11 or 12, he seemed stressed, frustrated and less happy.
Adam Lanza, who was prone to anxiety, was becoming more isolated, too, and viewed his Newtown home as a “comfort zone,” while school and interacting with his peers “led to pressure” for him, Peter Lanza told police.
According to the police files, King said that Adam Lanza “displayed a profound autism spectrum disorder with rigidity, isolation and a lack of comprehension of ordinary social interaction and communications.” Lanza was also diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder.
King told police, “My concern was that the shooter’s social isolation and withdrawal was increasing.”
King recommended that Adam Lanza receive further treatment at the center and referred Nancy Lanza to Koenig.
In her sworn statement to police, Koenig said that she had four face-to-face meetings with Adam Lanza between October 2006 and February 2007 and corresponded with Nancy Lanza by telephone and through email messages.
At that time, Lanza was being seen by Fox, whom Koenig said was Lanza’s “primary psychiatrist.”
Koenig said that Lanza’s obsessive compulsive disorder “severely limited his ability to lead a normal, well-adjusted life.”
She described him as “emotionally paralyzed” and said that he would participate in multiple daily rituals like repeated hand washing and showering and obsessively changing the blue polo shirts and khaki pants that he wore exclusively — behavior that forced Nancy Lanza to do up to three loads of laundry a day.
She said that Adam Lanza was also sensitive to light and was unable to touch doorknobs with his bare hands.
Koenig prescribed Celexa and recommended that he have follow-up visits at her office.
But Nancy Lanza did not appear to take her advice, Koenig said.
“Koenig described Nancy Lanza’s response to her recommendations as ‘non-compliant,'” the police files said.
Once when Koenig prescribed a small dose of Celexa to Adam Lanza, Nancy Lanza called Koenig’s office to report that Adam Lanza was “unable to raise his arm” and she blamed it on the medication. She told Koenig that her son would no longer be taking the medication.
Koenig attempted to convince Nancy Lanza that the medication was not causing the arm ailment but “Nancy Lanza was not receptive to Koenig’s reasoning,” the police reports said.
During her talks with Adam Lanza, Koenig said that he would ask her about schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorders but would never elaborate about whether he was experiencing any of the symptoms.
At one point — the reports do not list a date — Adam Lanza and his mother missed an appointment and never rescheduled the visit. Koenig contacted Fox and they agreed that Adam Lanza’s “behavioral-based therapy would remain” his primary course of treatment and Koenig said she planned to assist Fox with Lanza.
“However, she stated that Adam Lanza never returned for a follow-up visit,” the police files said.
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Business Insider
Geoffrey Ingersoll
Dec. 18, 2012, 2:36 PM 129,756 106
By now the whole country is fully embroiled in the Gun Control debate, spurred by the grisly murder of 27 people, mostly kids, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school last Friday.
Guns might not be the only problem though.
New York Magazine wrote a piece about shooter Adam Lanza’s supposed “aspergers” syndrome as a “red herring” meant to distract from the real problem (guns, of course, the subject goes without mentioning).
Inside the piece though they report Adam Lanza’s uncle said the boy was prescribed Fanapt, a controversial anti-psychotic medicine.
Fanapt was the subject of a Bloomberg report when it passed regulators, after previously getting the “nonapproval” stamp. Why wasn’t it approved, you might ask?
There are many reasons, some of which have to do with competing entities in a competitive market.
The main cited reason for the rejection was that it caused severe heart problems in enough patients to cause a stir.
Maybe more importantly, though, Fanapt is one of a many drugs the FDA pumped out with an ability to exact the opposite desired effect on people: that is, you know, inducing rather than inhibiting psychosis and aggressive behavior.
From Drugs.com, side effects of the drug Fanapt:
Psychiatric
Psychiatric side effects including restlessness, aggression, and delusion have been reported frequently. Hostility, decreased libido, paranoia, anorgasmia, confusional state, mania, catatonia, mood swings, panic attack, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, delirium, polydipsia psychogenic, impulse-control disorder, and major depression have been reported infrequently.
In fact, Fanapt was dropped by its first producer, picked up by another, initially rejected by the FDA, then later picked up and mass produced. The adverse side-effect is said to be “infrequent,” but still it exists, and can’t be ignored.
The reaction invoked by the drug in some people is reminiscent of the Jeffrey R. MacDonald case, where a Green Beret slaughtered his entire family and then fabricated a story about a marauding troop of “hopped up hippies”.
MacDonald though, had Eskatrol in his system, a weight-loss amphetamine that’s since been banned in part for its side effects of psychotic behavior and aggression.
These drugs are not the only ones that can cause the opposite of their desired effect. Several anti-depressant medications are also restricted to adults, for the depression they inspire in kids rather than eliminate.
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Toxicology tests show Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza had no drugs or alcohol in his system when he carried out massacre
By Daily Mail Reporters
PUBLISHED: 13:08 GMT, 14 May 2013
Toxicology tests have revealed that Adam Lanza had no alcohol or drugs in his body when he shot and killed 20 first-graders and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14.
The tests, conducted as part of the autopsy by state Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, confirm there were neither illegal drugs nor antidepressants in his body.
It isn’t known if Lanza, 20, took medication or used illegal drugs or alcohol. Search warrant records released by state police do not indicate whether drugs or alcohol were found when investigators searched the Newtown home Lanza shared with his mother Nancy.
The warrants do indicate that unspecified medical records were found. Law enforcement sources have said that Lanza received some psychiatric care at an unspecified point and that state police obtained those records.
Other mass shooters have had histories of antidepressant use, but then stopped using their medication to have a clear head during their attacks.
Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho had been prescribed Prozac but no traces of the drug were found in his system after the attack.
Lanza’s test results support the theory that his attack was focused and well planned.
Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole told Courant.com that Lanza’s test results support the theory that his attack was focused and well planned.
‘His thinking was not blurred or flawed in anyway,” O’Toole said. She said the absence of anything in Lanza’s system was consistent with someone thinking that ‘I want to kill as many people as I can.’
Depending on the drug, it can take several days for it to leave a person’s system. Anti-psychotic drugs take the least time, while some drugs such as marijuana taking longer.
Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky has said he expects a final report on the state police investigation into the shooting to be released by the end of June.
In April it emerged that Lanza had been beaten and taunted by his fellow classmates while he was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary, and his mother had considered filing a lawsuit against the school.
Speaking exclusively with the New York Daily News, the relative said that the man who would grow up to murder his mother, Nancy, was viciously bullied by his classmates and would come home from class with bruises over his body.
Nancy Lanza was ‘irate’ in her belief that the educators at Sandy Hook weren’t doing all in their power to protect her son, they said.
The relative told the Daily News that Lanza wouldn’t confide in his mother when she asked him what was wrong. ‘He would just sit there,’ the relative said.
Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14 and opened fire killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself.
He had killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in her bed before heading to the school.
Documents released in April revealed how the 20-year-old had sprayed 155 bullets at innocent children and educators during a five-minute rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The papers also revealed items seized from the home that Lanza shared with his mother.
Investigators confiscated an NRA guide to shooting and three other self-help books, ‘Look at Me: My Life With Asperger’s’, ‘Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Mind of an Autistic Savant’ and ‘Train Your Brain to Get Happy.’
In a top drawer of a filing cabinet, they found paper targets. In a duffel bag, they found ear and eye protection, binoculars, numerous other paper targets and an NRA certificate in his name. Another certificate was found in the home that belonged to Nancy Lanza, 52.
In response, the powerful gun-rights group denied the accuracy of the police evidence, saying both Lanza and his mother had no links to the group.
‘There is no record of a member relationship between Newtown killer Adam Lanza, nor between Nancy Lanza, A. Lanza or N. Lanza with the National Rifle Association.
Reporting to the contrary is reckless, false and defamatory,’ the statement said.
According to its website, the NRA doesn’t offer formal certificates for membership.
The police dossier compiled in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre reveal Lanza had amassed an astonishing arsenal of guns, with thousands of rounds of ammunition, samurai swords, spears and three photographs of what appear to be a dead person covered in blood.
Search warrant affidavits relating to the Newtown school shootings were unsealed by a judge in Danbury at 9.01am this morning – providing a chilling picture of the mass murderer in the days before he killed 26 people, including 20 children at the Connecticut school in December.
The inventory of the evidence seized from Lanza’s home and the car he drove to carry out the massacre provided glimpses into the world of a troubled young man, but it does not answer the question of what could have motivated the attack.
Investigators say it will take until June or later to complete the investigation.
Chief prosecutor Stephen Sedensky confirmed that Lanza killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun.
He revealed Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster.
When his body was discovered, Lanza’s Bushmaster was loaded with 30-round magazine of which 14 bullets still remained in place with one round in the chamber.
Upon entering the school, the police documents state that law officials discovered, ‘numerous school children and school personnel located deceased from apparent gunshot wounds in the first three classrooms off the main hallway, adjacent to the school’s front entrance’.
Adam Lanza’s body was found dressed in military camouflage wearing a bullet-proof vest on the floor in the classroom.
All the weapons Lanza was carrying were legally owned by his mother, Nancy, 52, who was discovered dead in her bed on the second-floor of the house she shared with her son with a gunshot wound to her forehead and a rifle on the floor nearby.
This new information from the police rules out any suggestion that Lanza tried to buy weapons himself before his massacre – which had been speculated previously.
A loaded 12-gauge shotgun was also found on the backseat of the Honda Civic Lanza drove to the school with two magazines containing 70 rounds of Winchester 12-gauge shotgun rounds.
The Associated Press and other news outlets have reported previously that Lanza showed interest in other mass killings and authorities found literature on other massacres at his house.
There have been reports that Lanza was obsessed with other mass killers, including Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a shooting and bomb attack in Norway two years ago.
ALL OVER IN FIVE MINUTES: LANZA UNLEASHED 155 BULLETS INSIDE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
- Adam Lanza fired 155 bullets in less than five minutes on the day he killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the chief prosecutor investigating the massacre said on Thursday.
- The total included 154 fired from a Bushmaster .223-model rifle and a final bullet, fired from a Glock 10mm handgun, that Lanza used to take his own life, said Stephen Sedensky, the chief prosecutor investigating the shooting
Among school shootings in the United States, the death toll from Newtown is second only to the 32 people killed at Virginia Tech in 2007.
Malloy announced last week that additional information would be released at his request. He expressed concern that some information about the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook reportedly disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans was leaked.
‘Like many others, I was disappointed and angered to learn that certain information about the Newtown shooting had been leaked, specifically with concern for the victims’ families who may have been hearing this news for the first time,’ the governor said in a statement.
A column published last week in the New York Daily News, citing an unnamed police officer who attended the seminar, reported that Col Daniel Stebbins discussed evidence that suggested the Newtown gunman studied other mass slayings and dedicated extensive planning to the rampage.
The seminar was designed for only law enforcement professionals, and sensitive information dealing with the tactical approaches used by first responders to the Sandy Hook shootings was discussed, Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt J. Paul Vance said.
Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. said this week that legislative leaders hope to review the search warrant documents before finishing work on a bipartisan bill that addresses gun control and other issues related to the massacre.