Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a sweeping new initiative to reduce psychiatric medication use, calling it an effort to correct what he characterized as an overmedication crisis. The move immediately drew cautious support and withering criticism from the American Psychiatric Association.
“Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications — especially among children,” Kennedy said during a Make America Healthy Again Institute summit on mental health and overmedicalization.
The initiative, dubbed the “deprescribing” program, would shift treatment standards toward prevention and holistic approaches while requiring greater patient autonomy, informed consent, and shared decision-making between doctors and patients. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will issue a report on prescribing trends as part of the effort.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter issued Monday, top HHS officials wrote that psychiatric medications “should not be understood as the only treatment option” — a statement that, while seemingly uncontroversial, signals a significant reorientation of federal health policy under Kennedy’s leadership.
The announcement reflects Kennedy’s long-held skepticism of psychiatric pharmacology. He has previously suggested that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants widely prescribed for depression and anxiety, could be linked to school shootings — a claim that has no scientific support. Kennedy has also asserted that these medications are more addictive than heroin, a claim contradicted by medical evidence. Kennedy himself is a recovering heroin addict.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16.5 percent of American adults in 2020 were taking psychiatric medications for mental health conditions.
The American Psychiatric Association’s response suggested the contours of an emerging debate within the mental health community. While the organization signaled receptiveness to Kennedy’s call for greater investment in research on prescribing practices, it pushed back sharply against his framing of the crisis.
“We are supportive of the Administration’s plans for further investment in research and clinician training on the issues of prescribing and deprescribing,” the APA said in a statement. “That being said, while APA supports efforts to improve the quality, safety, and evidence base of mental health treatment, we strongly object to framing the nation’s mental health crisis as primarily a problem of ‘overmedicalization’ or ‘overprescribing.’”
The APA added a warning note: “Deprescribing alone is not a sufficient response to this crisis.”
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