US to take steps to curb antidepressant prescribing, RFK Jr says

The federal health department will begin a series of steps intended to curb antidepressant use in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr announced this week.

Antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have long been a target for Kennedy, the Trump administration’s health secretary, who talked about the plans at an event Monday hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization focused on advancing the MAHA agenda. He has claimed without evidence that the drugs are linked to a rise in school shootings and has expressed concerns about weaning off the medications and withdrawal symptoms.

In a press release about the plans, the Department of Health and Human Services said its intent was to “curb psychiatric overprescribing” and promote “deprescribing when clinically indicated”.

During the event, Kennedy said he recognized the role of psychiatric medications, but that his department “will no longer treat them as the default, we will treat them as one option, to be used when appropriate, with full transparency and with a clear path off when they are no longer needed,” according to the New York Times’ reporting on the summit, which focused on “overmedicalization” of mental health.

“Let me be clear: If you are taking psychiatric medication, we are not telling you to stop. We are making sure you, and your clinician, have the information and support to make the right decision for you.”

A survey in 2025 across all 50 states showed nearly 17% of respondents currently used antidepressants. The survey also found that a “significant proportion of adults in every US state oppose efforts to restrict access to antidepressant prescribing”.

In the department press release, Kennedy said the action plan is intended to address “overuse” of these medications, “especially among children”.

A letter issued on Monday from top HHS officials details to providers the goal to reduce antidepressant use and encourages the use of non-medication options for treating depression, including psychotherapy, diet, physical activity and social connection. The letter intended to “emphasize the importance of ensuring that treatment planning for mental health conditions includes meaningful access to evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions”.

“When clinically indicated, such treatment should include careful assessment of patient’s symptoms, medication review for efficacy, and when appropriate, deprescribing,” the letter says.

The department also gave guidance to mental health practitioners that makes clear they can be paid for the medical care involved in deprescribing and sent out resources for how to manage the process of deprescribing.

The American Psychiatric Association, which counts more than 40,000 physicians as members, said in a statement that it “welcomes the attention placed squarely on the nation’s mental health crisis and is committed to advancing solutions that improve access to high-quality evidence-based care”.

It supports the administration’s plans to invest in research on the topic and train clinicians on prescribing and deprescribing, but pushed back on the framing of the mental health crisis as a problem of overprescribing.

“That characterization oversimplifies a complex crisis and ignores the larger reality: too many patients cannot access timely, comprehensive care, while care remains unevenly distributed across our health system,” the association said, adding that the framing doesn’t account for workforce shortages, limited beds for psychiatric care and barriers to access to care.

“Deprescribing alone is not a sufficient response to this crisis,” it said. “In psychiatry, as in all areas of medicine, prescribing and deprescribing occur every day as part of individualized, evidence-based treatment planning between physicians and patients. The solution is not to stigmatize psychiatric medication or impose broad assumptions on clinical care, but to ensure that patients have access to the full range of evidence-based treatments and that decisions are guided by the best available science and each patient’s needs.”