RFK Jr. wants people to stop taking antidepressants

RFK Jr. wants people to stop taking antidepressants

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is rolling out a new initiative intended to rein in the prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most prescribed class of antidepressant medications. 

“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 Monday during a Make America Healthy Again Institute summit on mental health and overmedicalization. 

“We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency and a more holistic approach to mental health,” he added. 

Monday’s announcement was the first step Kennedy has taken toward his long-stated goal of reducing the use of antidepressants, sold under the brand names of Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro. 

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16.5 percent of adults in 2020 were taking psychiatric medications for their mental health. A 2025 survey found a similar percentage of people reported antidepressant use.

“Psychiatric medications have a role in care, but we 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,” Kennedy said.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter on Monday, top officials within HHS wrote that psychiatric medications........

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