While his war on vaccines may be getting more attention, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is coming for another important medical tool: antidepressants. … In November, he posted on X that the CDC is “finally confronting the long-taboo question of whether SSRIs and other psychoactive drugs contribute to mass violence.” …
Kennedy has in particular made skepticism toward antidepressants for adolescents a centerpiece of his public health agenda, even claiming that antidepressants may be harder to quit than heroin — a stance that ignores decades of evidence about their safety and efficacy. …
Kennedy’s willfully uninformed rhetoric on antidepressants is going to cost lives. …
If Kennedy’s views shape Food and Drug Administration policy — for example, through new or expanded black box warnings — millions of vulnerable patients … could lose access to essential drug treatment and mental health care ….
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How do we know? We have seen before how fear-driven messaging about antidepressants can cause catastrophic harm. In our Health Affairs systematic review, … [we] found that well-intended but mismanaged warnings to doctors, patients, and parents about possible negative impacts have cost several thousand lives.
