The recent spate of gruesome family murders in Kerala points to a deeply disturbing pattern of mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse. On February 24, a 23-year-old man confessed to killing his mother, brother, grandmother, uncle, aunt and a friend in a span of seven hours in the town of Venjaramoodu, a few kilometres from state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Only his mother survived the brutal attack, but she remains critical.

Though he claimed financial difficulties and mounting debt as the motives for the murders, he was known to have a drug problem. In January, a 25-year-old man with a known history of drug addiction murdered his mother for ‘birthing’ him. Experts have........

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