Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan to wean Americans off commonly used antidepressant medications such as Prozac and Zoloft during a daylong mental health summit held by the Make America Healthy Again Institute. The initiative includes new training, clinical guidance, and changes to insurance billing intended to help providers safely taper patients off the drugs if they choose to stop.

Kennedy said researchers are unsure why Americans have a dependency crisis driven by overmedicalization of psychiatric medications, and he said he is especially interested in selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a class that includes Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Paxil. "Too many patients begin treatment without a clear understanding of the risks and how long they will stay on these drugs or how to come off of them," Kennedy said. "And that's not informed consent. We are going to fix it."

Kennedy has long claimed that psychiatric medications are overprescribed, that their serious side effects harm people, and that the drugs cause mass shootings. Under the initiative, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will publish new data on prescribing trends and clinical guidance for providers in the coming months. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will issue billing guidance for providers to help patients taper off drugs when they need or want to, and will expand access to alternative evidence-based treatments, including talk therapy and family support services for children.

In a "Dear Colleague" letter, the Department of Health and Human Services stated that "Psychiatric medications can play an important and, at times, essential role in treatment. For many individuals, such medications reduce symptoms, improve functioning, prevent relapse, and support recovery." The letter stressed that medications should never be the only option and encouraged providers to regularly review risks of SSRIs with patients and engage them in decision-making about whether to start medications or to wean off them.

Theresa Miskimen Rivera, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said the framing around antidepressants overlooks gaps in care. "It really is an oversimplification. And it really ignores the larger reality, which is that too many patients really cannot access timely, comprehensive care that is much needed for our nation," she said. Miskimen Rivera said she and the association support plans to better train healthcare providers to safely prescribe and wean patients off antidepressants. "We're also very much in support of the administration's plans to further investment in research and the efforts to improve quality, safety and evidence-based mental health treatment," she said.

Vera Feuer, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and chief clinical officer at the Child Mind Institute, said only a minority of children with mental health conditions require medications and that talk therapy is sufficient for the majority, although it is hard to access for many families. "Some of the recommendations are completely reasonable. Everybody should have a detailed, careful assessment. We shouldn't be letting prescribers feel pressured by parents and schools to instantly medicate behaviors that are due to other issues and can be treated differently," Feuer said. She said focusing solely on the side effects of SSRIs can obscure the benefits these medications provide to millions of people, including some children with mental health symptoms, and noted that patients and their families have thanked her for prescribing an SSRI, saying "I feel like I have my child back. They're thriving."

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention stated that SSRIs are important for helping people with major depression and suicidality. "A robust body of scientific evidence demonstrates that antidepressants are effective in treating acute depressive episodes, preventing future episodes, and reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. While all medications carry potential risks, decades of research — spanning clinical trials, population-level studies, and health system data — show that the judicious use of antidepressants reduces suicide risk overall," the foundation said.