{"id":2598830,"date":"2026-05-05T08:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rfk-launches-plan-to-stop-predatory-overprescribing-of-psych-drugs\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:21:56","slug":"rfk-launches-plan-to-stop-predatory-overprescribing-of-psych-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rfk-launches-plan-to-stop-predatory-overprescribing-of-psych-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Launches Plan To Stop Overprescribing Of Psych Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frfk-launches-plan-to-stop-predatory-overprescribing-of-psych-drugs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2598830&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan to curb psychiatric overprescribing, arguing that many patients are kept on medications like SSRIs and benzodiazepines without strong long-term evidence or adequate informed consent. Speaking at the MAHA Institute\u2019s Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit, he cited high numbers of Americans taking psychiatric drugs across ages-including adults, children, college students, and nursing home residents-and said <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >financial incentives encourage prolonged medication<\/a> use.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy said HHS will launch a \u201cDear Colleague Letter\u201d directing reforms across agencies such as SAMHSA, CMS, ACF, and HRSA. The effort will emphasize evidence-based non-drug treatments, stronger shared decision-making, and better consent practices. Concrete steps include SAMHSA training on medication risks and how to taper patients with deprescribing, HRSA training clinicians at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">federally qualified health centers<\/a> to conduct medically supervised tapers, and CMS guidance intended to let providers bill for deprescribing-related services like monitoring and care coordination.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that when psychiatric drugs don\u2019t work as intended-given reports of emotional blunting, difficulty continuing use, and potential suicidal ideation-patients may need safer off-ramps. Kennedy compared SSRI withdrawal to heroin withdrawal, arguing that clinicians frequently enough misinterpret withdrawal-related symptoms as relapse and respond by restarting drugs, potentially locking patients into a harmful cycle. He concluded that addressing mental health and substance-use challenges requires prevention and expanded non-medication treatment options, not defaulting to drugs.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced Monday a plan to stop psychiatric doctors from overprescribing medications to patients who do not need them.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the MAHA Institute\u2019s Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit in the nation\u2019s capital, Kennedy laid out some dire data showing an enormous amount of Americans \u2014 of all age groups \u2014 on one or more psychiatric medications, ostensibly in order to \u201ctreat\u201d underlying mental health conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple panels at the summit made clear that there is very little underlying evidence to suggest these drugs \u2014 like commonplace Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) or benzodiazepines \u2014 do much of what they promise, particularly in the long-term, and that there are massive monetary incentives for keeping patients perpetually medicated.<\/p>\n<p>However, Kennedy announced a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/press-room\/hhs-launches-maha-action-plan-curb-psychiatric-overprescribing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dear Colleague Letter<\/a> from HHS that will begin a plan to start paying doctors to pursue off-ramps for these medications that have run rampant.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cUnited States does not just face a mental health crisis. We face a dependency crisis driven by overmedicalization,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThis is a system-level pattern. 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, and that\u2019s not informed consent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Running through some quick statistics, Kennedy noted that over 16 percent of American adults takes antidepressants, 10 percent of children are on some form of prescription drug for a mental health issue, 30 percent of college students have used psychiatric medications in the past year, and over 50 percent of nursing home residents are on prescription antidepressant drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The Dear Colleague Letter will kickstart reforms across HHS, including at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration\u00a0(SAMHSA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).<\/p>\n<p>Health care providers are being directed to \u201cexpand the use of evidence-based non-pharmalogic treatments and to strengthen informed consent and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supplements-can-help-with-hair-loss-according-to-new-study\/\" title=\"Supplements Can Help With Hair Loss According To New Study\">shared decision making<\/a>,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>SAMHSA, for example, will conduct national training modules on the risks associated with psychiatric medication, how to taper a patient off the medications, and encouraging deprescribing. That agency, along with HRSA, will also train providers at over 1,400 federally qualified health centers \u2014 overseeing about 39 million patients \u2014 about how to conduct medically supervised taperings for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>CMS, meanwhile, will issue billing guidance that will allow providers to get paid for deprescribing, including the care planning, monitoring withdrawal, coordinating treatment, and tracking outcomes, Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPsychiatric medications have a role in care, but we will no longer treat them as the default. We will treat them as one option, used when appropriate, with full transparency, and with a clear path off when they are no longer effective,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cPatients must understand the benefits, the risks, and the consequences of long term use before they start or they continue, and when they consider stopping. Without that information, consent does not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given the limited data on the efficacy of these drugs, which millions of Americans take every single day, Kennedy said that HHS is \u201cconfronting a basic question: What happens when treatment does not work as intended?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome patients report improvement on SSRIs. Others report emotional blunting, loss of motivation, difficulty continuing use, and suicide ideation,\u201d he said. \u201cWithdrawal can be severe; it can be prolonged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy compared SSRI withdrawal to heroin withdrawal \u2014 something he said he had gone through \u201cprobably over 100 times\u201d during his 14-year addiction to the substance \u2014 noting that in many ways, SSRI withdrawal is worse.<\/p>\n<p>Heroin withdrawal, Kennedy said, is bad for about 72 hours, but SSRI withdrawal includes persistent suicidal ideation \u2014 something providers routinely mistake for mental health relapse, when it is really the substance itself, according to multiple panelists at the summit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve heard that from hundreds and hundreds of people \u2014 the same story again and again,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can be prolonged, and for many patients, it\u2019s completely unexpected. And the physicians handle this by saying, \u2018Oh, this is your original symptom, reasserting itself. You need to get back on the SSRIs.\u2019 And they get locked in a lifetime cycle that is, for many patients, absolutely cataclysmic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNearly 48 million Americans experienced depression last year; more than 48 million struggle with substance use disorders,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThese are not abstract numbers. These are family members. These are individuals. These are people who other people love. That is the scale of the challenge. We are not going to solve it by defaulting to medication. We\u2019re going to solve it by strengthening prevention, expanding non-drug treatment options, and restoring clinical standards that prioritize outcome over volume.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HHS plan aims to curb overprescribing of psychiatric drugs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2598831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8880-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[74197,74017,79115],"class_list":["post-2598830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-healthcare-policy-2","tag-mental-health-2","tag-psychiatry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8880-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2598834,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598830\/revisions\/2598834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2598831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}