There is a legitimate clinical problem at the center of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s initiative to help Americans stop taking antidepressants. Deprescribing is understudied, undertaught, and under-reimbursed. Drug companies have spent four decades funding trials showing that their medications work. Almost none have funded trials showing when and how to stop.
But Kennedy’s initiative conflates that genuine clinical need with claims unsupported by evidence — and some that are actively dangerous.
The largest meta-analysis to date on discontinuation symptoms found patients who stopped antidepressants experienced, on average, one additional symptom compared to placebo — below the threshold for clinically significant discontinuation syndrome. A companion Lancet Psychiatry analysis found roughly 15% experience symptoms attributable to stopping, with severe symptoms in about 3%.
These are real numbers. But they do not support Kennedy’s claim that SSRIs are harder to quit than heroin. Keith Humphreys, who studies addiction at Stanford, put it plainly: Antidepressants and heroin exist in “different universes” when it comes to addiction risk.
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Deprescribing requires gradual tapering, psychological support, careful risk stratification, and accessible alternatives — none of which Kennedy’s initiative provides at scale.
