Why is it always young men? Is testosterone poisoning a problem?

[GoCubsGo]

100. No. Males are affected differently by certain mental illnesses.

Schizophrenia is one such disease. It affects men and women differently. Do a search with the keywords "schizophrenia" and "gender", and you'll come up with a number of sites that indicate that schizophrenia sets in during the late teens and early 20s in males, and a decade later in females, and even more so after menopause. And, some forms of the disease affect the differences may be due to estrogen, rather than testosterone. Apparently they estrogen may be a protective factor, and since males generally have very low estrogen levels, they don't get the same protection. Males all over the world have the same "testosterone spikes" as males here, yet they don't go around shooting up people like they do here. Or, at least such cases are extremely rare in comparison. So, it isn't the testosterone that's to blame.

I don't think all these shootings are caused by our violent culture, or some supposed link between males, testosterone and violence. I think they are caused by untreated mental illness. However, I do think that the excessive violence, hate radio/TV, etc., in our culture pushe already sick people over the edge in a lot of cases. And, the easy access to weapons exacerbates the issue, as well. See: Jared Loughner. I am not psychiatrist, but I'll just say that if it turns out this Holmes kid is schizophrenic, or has some other mental illness, I will not be at all surprised.