- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new federal initiatives to reduce antidepressant prescribing, falsely comparing them to heroin.
- At a MAHA event, Kennedy spoke about ‘overmedicalization’ and claimed antidepressants like Zoloft and Prozac are prescribed without informed consent.
- Experts warned Kennedy’s statements could lead to deaths, citing a 2024 study linking an FDA warning to thousands of deaths.
- Kennedy repeated the false claim that quitting antidepressants is harder than heroin, despite debunking by experts.
- New measures include clinician training, a letter encouraging non-medical alternatives, and CMS guidance for deprescribing.
- The American Psychiatric Association criticized the initiative, saying the mental health crisis should not be reduced to ‘overmedicalization’.