Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants

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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced several initiatives intended to rein in the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, which he has described as exceptionally difficult to quit.

Mr. Kennedy has long signaled that reducing the use of psychiatric drugs would be an aim of his tenure, but Monday’s announcements were the first significant step in that direction.

The initiative focuses on the most widely prescribed class of psychiatric medications, first-line treatments for depression and anxiety that include Zoloft, Lexapro, Paxil and Prozac. In 2026, 16.6 percent of U.S. adults, or roughly one in six, reported currently taking an S.S.R.I.

Introduced nearly 40 years ago, the drugs surged in popularity, partly because they had fewer side effects than previous antidepressants and could be prescribed by general practitioners. Clinicians typically told patients that going off S.S.R.I.s was straightforward. But many patients report withdrawal symptoms, including “brain zaps,” restlessness and flulike symptoms, and say they have received little support from clinicians in the process.

The changes — new trainings, reimbursement mechanisms and clinical guidelines — nudge clinicians to help patients getting off medications, and to consider nonpharmaceutical interventions, like therapy, nutrition and exercise.

“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,” Mr. Kennedy said at a Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit organized by the MAHA Institute.

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