– I have previously said that I am no longer angry, but now I feel anger again. Sunniva was 11 years old when her father, Dag Helge Rønning, killed two policemen on the small island of Austbø. Rønning was being treated for mental problems when the murders occurred. He went to therapy and received medication for depression and suicidal thoughts. Dag Helge Rønning’s medical history Dag Rønning starts hearing voices and is affected by depression at the end of 1996. He makes his first suicide attempt on Saltfjellet in his car, but is saved by his work colleagues. He receives outpatient treatment at Nordland Psychiatric Hospital and receives the antidepressants Cipramil. In April 1997, he cuts his wrists to end his life, but he cuts incorrectly. At the hospital, he is patched up before being forcibly admitted for a month with a suicide watch at Nordland Psychiatric Hospital. He receives the antidepressants Tolvon and Zoloft in addition to talk therapy. Vival is used as a sedative when anger and despair arise. After a better period in the summer and autumn, things really go wrong in Advent 1997. He tries to take his own life by eating 50 tablets of antidepressants and has to be pumped in the hospital. A few days later, he collapses after eating too many Vival in a short time. The police must come to his home and put him in irons. Again, he is admitted to forced custody and he is given a new antidepressant called Efexor. After a month in compulsory hospitalisation, he switches to voluntary treatment, and eventually gets the idea that a trip to his childhood home at Austbø should be the end of the treatment. Source: Rønning’s medical record from Nordlandssykehuset. In an as yet unpublished interview with TV 2, Rønning says that he believes the medication he was given was a contributing factor in why he did what he did. Rønning’s daughter Sunniva has seen the entire interview, which is just over an hour and a half long. It has upset her. See parts of the interview TV 2 did in 2000. Here, Dag Helge tells what he thinks went wrong on the fateful night at Austbø two years earlier. Hope for change – I realize how unfair it all was, says Sunniva. She does not want to come forward with her full name and picture for the sake of her own children. – In the interview, dad says that he felt that the medication was largely to blame for what he did. I have also been clear about that. Personally, I don’t think he would have done what he did if he wasn’t on medication. SPECIAL: After over 20 years, Sunniva finally got to see the interview TV 2 did with dad Dag Helge Rønning after the murders at Austbø. Photo: Olav Wold / TV 2 Sunniva herself has contributed to telling the story of Dag Helge Rønning. She hopes the openness can lead to changes in psychiatry. – We need more transparency around which side effects different medicines can have. We have to realize that we can’t just stuff people with medication and think that things will go away, she says. And Sunniva is not the only one who is critical of the use of medication in psychiatry. – Being left without help news has told several stories about people who face major challenges when using different medications in connection with psychiatric treatment. The life of 26-year-old Andreas was completely changed after he was put on antipsychotic drugs. Several organizations have joined forces in the joint action for drug-free offers, including the organization We shall overcome (WSO). – As it is today, many patients are left with only an offer of medication. And if you don’t want medication, you won’t get an offer at all, says Mette Ellingsdalen in WSO. Medicine-free offers work for the development of medicine-free treatment alternatives in mental health care. This includes support for the safe tapering of medications. Head of department in mental health, Jon Fabritius, refers to an American study on people with schizophrenia. It shows that around 1 in 5 patients do not respond to the medicines they receive. – Patients who do not respond as desired to medication must receive an equivalent treatment offer, says Fabritius. Both Mental Health and WSO believe there are several reasons why the treatment offer beyond medication is not satisfactory. – One is the lack of resources. At the same time, the resources we have must be used correctly. As of today, I believe that the field is stuck in the idea that medication is such an important part of basic treatment, says Mette Ellingsdalen in WSO. She is supported by Fabritius in Mental health. – A better and broader offer requires a change in both attitudes and treatment approach – and that is a difficult exercise, he says. LACK OF INFORMATION: – We hear a lot of feedback from members and others about a lack of information about side effects, says Jon Fabritius in Mental Health. – Nothing can be solved without medication The head of the Norwegian Psychiatric Association, Lars Lien, believes that medication is a very important part of the treatment of mentally ill people. – Nothing can be solved without medication. I am quite sure of that, he says. Last week the association gathered in Bergen. There they discussed new methods and what works. – When it comes to antipsychotic treatment, all major studies show that there is nothing that surpasses medication in terms of quality of life and the possibility of living a better life, says Lien. When it comes to depression, he says that the results are more variable, but that medication still proves to have a very good effect, combined with therapy. Furthermore, Lien says that the treatment Dag Helge Rønning received in the years before the tragic incident at Austbø was in line with the methods of that time. And the same methods, therapy and treatment, apply today. At the same time, he emphasizes that methods, knowledge and medicines have developed since 1998. – We have got better medicines and more knowledge about what works from person to person. We have also received more pointed types of therapy, he says. But he acknowledges that the situation is not entirely satisfactory. Lars Lien is a psychiatrist and head of the Norwegian Psychiatric Association. Photo: Thomas B. Eckhoff / The Norwegian Medical Association Moves to the private sector According to Lien, lack of resources in psychiatry presents challenges. Among other things, when it comes to important follow-up of patients with regard to side effects of medicines. – I don’t think there is a lack of knowledge about any side effects medicines have. The challenge, as I see it, is more the follow-up over time, so that we can uncover unfortunate side effects and change treatment in good time. And it’s not always that easy in a busy everyday life, says Lars Lien. Mette Ellingsdalen in the WSO, on the other hand, believes that the problem is a little bigger than that. CONVERSATION IS MOST IMPORTANT: Mette Ellingsdalen, leader of We shall overcome (WSO), believes that in many cases of mental illness, talk therapy is the most important and best method. Photo: WSO – The information when people start taking drugs is not good enough. In particular, this applies to information on long-term side effects and adverse effects. And when people experience it, it is not recognised, she says. Ellingsdalen also believes that there is too little knowledge about tapering off medication, which can cause major challenges. – We need good information from the start and good dialogue along the way. Patients must be consulted if they notice changes. The side effects must not just be dismissed as part of the disease, she says.
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Sunniva’s father killed two policemen in Austbø. Now she settles with psychiatry – news Nordland
