Joe Rogan on mental health: what the evidence says · JRE #1769
SUBJECT: MENTAL HEALTH
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
But you know that there's a direct correlation that almost all school shooters are on psychotropic drugs.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Rogan asserted a direct correlation in which almost all school shooters are on psychotropic drugs. A 2019 review of FBI-identified educational shooters from 2000 to 2017 found that most had not previously been treated with psychotropic medications, and even among those who had, no direct or causal association with the shootings was found. A 2021 study of 35 surviving mass shooters (from the Mother Jones mass-shooting database, 1982-2019) found that 28 of the 35 had a diagnosable psychiatric illness, most commonly schizophrenia, but that none of those diagnosed had been treated with medication at the time of the crime, pointing to a pattern of unmedicated, untreated illness rather than active drug treatment. Neither study supports a claim that almost all, or even most, school or mass shooters were on psychotropic medication at the time of their attacks; the peer-reviewed literature on this specific question finds the opposite pattern. The claim is false based on current evidence.