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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2 Responses
This article omits much informatin that provides context.
1. The mental health professions have multiplied in the recent several decades. There were once only psychiatrists and psychologists, their greatest difference being the medical training in psychiatry. A psychiatrist trains in the medical field first, and then specializes in psychiatry. Psychology studies mostly mental health, and may have limited relevant training in the biological and physiological aspects. Only psychiatrists could prescribe medications.
2. Clinical social work entered the picture. The three were the dominant professionals. But then there was the development of a variety of similar, and often more limited areas of practice. These include counseling, family therapy, and mroe recently coaching. Today, there is a plethora of professionals. The lines between the actual practitioners are getting a bit blurry, though the training aspects can differ greatly. Let’s also recognize nurse practitioners and physicians assistants that can have limited prescription privileges.
3. Countless others perform counseling of various types, some of which involve no formal training. It is common in our community to seek marital guidance from rabbonim, many of whom are ill equipped to help.
So the tools of psychotherapy are not emphasized in psychiatric training anymore, and many are not adequately trained in these modalities. This is a generalization – today’s psychiatrists only prescribe medications.
It is also scientifically proven that there are significant roles of chemical imbalances in certain psychiatric conditions. For most of these, medications are the most efficient route to control. Therapy has its role, and in limited instances, can be used in place of medication.
Meanwhile, RFK might have a point to make in his position of overmedication, but to accuse the profession as being irresponsible in overmedication is unwarranted. The SSRI’s have applications in clinical medicine besides psychiatry, and this increases their use.
The attribution of crime and violence to SSRI medications is silly, proven false, and actually disgraceful that a cabinet level politician would repeat this drivel.
Kennedy should go back to his heroin and leave the nations most serious matters to people more qualified than himself.
Need to make up your mind – are the school shootings due to meds or due to guns?