(1/18/99)

One lawmaker says last week's shooting at Triad Center shows the need for reform, because an apparently mentally unbalanced person easily bought a gun and a bucket full of bullets.

News Specialist Karen Scullin has been following the story, and looked into the type of mental illness the suspect may have had.

A doctor I spoke with says schizophrenia is a fairly common disease. The Triad shooting suspect, De-Kieu Duy, shows strong symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

And she's not alone. One percent of the population has schizophrenia. And it usually sets in during late adolescence or early to mid twenties. De-Kieu Duy is 24.

Psychiatrist Dr. Louis Moench says, "Misconceptions based on paranoid fears are common. Actually acting them out is not very common."

But some experts say when De-Kieu Duy allegedly walked into the Triad Center and shot two people last Thursday, she was not in touch with reality. She showed strong symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.

Dr. Moench explains, "It's the inability to coordinate one's thinking, and one's feeling, and one's behavior with one's behavior and have it all come out making sense."

And there are several reasons for the disease. Brain defects, chemical defects, part of it can be genetic, and Dr. Moench believes there is probably some environmental influence.

But what leads to violence? "Their delusions tell them they're being threatened. Their delusions tell them their life can't go on if they don't solve this problem in some way. And some people think the solution is to be violent, to take out the offending person, or institution."

The disease can't be cured, but it can be treated. The problem is getting the patient to take and keep taking medication. As Dr. Moench explains, "Part of the problem is when people feel well, they say 'gee, why do I need to take this medicine any longer?' failing to realize it's the medicine that makes them do fine."