Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently announced plans to begin significantly reducing the most-used class of antidepressants in America. Under his proposal, the medications would be subject to federal deprescribing guidelines, and Medicare and Medicaid would adopt new reimbursement rules to encourage tapering them off.
The problem here isn’t that Kennedy wants to reexamine the widespread use of these drugs; it’s how he’s going about it. The plan appears to start with a conclusion, and the government is now assembling evidence to support it. That’s no way to change policies on drugs that millions of Americans rely on.
… Prescriptions for antidepressants have climbed for decades, and some patients could probably taper off them safely. But he is seeking to change federal policy as if he has all the answers, not a bunch of questions.
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How well these drugs work is an empirical question; whether relying on one is shameful is not. … People with [depression] are suspected of just not “trying hard enough.” Words like “dependency” and “overmedicalization” imply that leaning on a drug is a failure of will.
