{"id":1700,"date":"2026-07-30T20:18:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T20:18:37","slug":"the-real-antidepressant-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700","title":{"rendered":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is vocal about his view that Americans overuse psychiatric medications, particularly antidepressants. As a general rule, the Health and Human Services secretary is skeptical of pharmaceuticals, but he\u2019s gone further in his critiques of SSRIs, suggesting without credible evidence that their use might be linked to violent behavior, including school shootings. This past spring, he announced plans to discourage doctors from prescribing antidepressants and encourage them to de-prescribe the drugs\u2014that is, to help patients who have previously been prescribed SSRIs stop taking them.<\/p>\n

Read more The One Sign of Life at the Zombie Kennedy Center<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a recent survey, about 17 percent of American adults take an antidepressant. Some of them are my patients, many of whom were upset or infuriated by Kennedy\u2019s move to rein in the prescribing of drugs whose benefits they have experienced firsthand. One of my patients, who has tried to stop taking Zoloft several times only for his depression to recur, told me that he couldn\u2019t understand why the nation\u2019s health secretary might want to discourage people from taking the SSRIs they\u2019ve been prescribed.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s claim that antidepressants are overprescribed contains a grain of truth. Some patients receive antidepressants without really needing them or stay on them for longer than necessary. Earlier this year, an independent task force of psychiatrists suggested that more attention be paid to how and when patients and their doctors test whether tapering off these medications would be reasonable. In fact, inappropriate prescribing creates the impression among both patients and doctors that antidepressants are less effective than they are.<\/p>\n

When Kennedy talks about de-prescribing antidepressants, exactly what he\u2019s proposing remains unclear. He doesn\u2019t specify which groups of depressed patients he believes can stop their medication. In fact, contrary to his often-heated rhetoric about SSRIs, he said in May when announcing the de-prescription measures that \u201cif you are taking psychiatric medication, we are not telling you to stop\u201d\u2014and then encouraged such patients to \u201cmake the right decision\u201d in consultation with their doctor. The benefits of antidepressants vary greatly. There is abundant evidence that antidepressants are effective for people who have moderate or more severe forms of depression. If you feel persistently sad, believe that life isn\u2019t worth living, and lose your energy, appetite, concentration, or ability to experience pleasure, you likely have clinical depression, and your symptoms would be good targets for antidepressant treatment. But the same is not true of people experiencing what psychiatrists call everyday distress. Feeling, say, unhappy in a soul-sucking job or grief-stricken over the loss of a loved one are painful but entirely appropriate emotional responses. They call for changing your situation or contacting a friend for support, not for an antidepressant.<\/p>\n

Taking an SSRI in such a scenario would be like prescribing an antibiotic for a common cold: a waste of resources that\u2019s likely to only give the patient side effects and leave them questioning the efficacy of the drug. Some providers nevertheless prescribe antidepressants for everyday distress. I\u2019ve seen patients going through grief or job loss who were prescribed SSRIs by my colleagues, perhaps because they thought the patients were right on the edge of depression. And in the clinic where I teach and supervise residents, I\u2019ve met many people who were unnecessarily prescribed a cocktail of antidepressants by other clinicians in the community. Many of my colleagues have come across such patients too.<\/p>\n

Even people who have chronic mild depression can respond well to antidepressants, some studies have found. But a 2010 meta-analysis showed that people with the most severe depression experienced the greatest improvement from antidepressant treatment, whereas the benefit for those with milder depression was smaller, in some cases near zero. One possible explanation for this finding is that placebo responses tend to be higher in patients with milder depression (perhaps because they start to feel better when researchers ask how they\u2019re doing throughout the study), so drug-placebo differences in that group are slight. Another explanation is that people with more severe depression likely have more biological abnormalities in the brain, such as elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol and exaggerated responses in the fear circuit, which can be good targets for antidepressants.<\/p>\n

No national data prove that antidepressant overuse is rampant, though. The closest approximation we have is a landmark 2014 study that examined the health records of more than 1 million patients during one year of treatment and found that about 40 percent of antidepressant prescriptions were written without a documented psychiatric diagnosis. This, however, doesn\u2019t prove that the prescriptions were medically unnecessary: Antidepressants are legitimately prescribed for other reasons, including pain, quitting smoking, and insomnia. And the fact that nearly a fifth of Americans are taking an antidepressant is in line with the actual burden of psychiatric illness in the general population: In the most recent national data available, which were published in 2005, 7 percent of survey respondents reported having major depressive disorder, 4 percent reported PTSD, and others reported additional diagnoses for which SSRIs can be appropriate.<\/p>\n

Read more America Isn\u2019t Supposed to Have Political Prosecutions<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, some patients don\u2019t like being on antidepressants, even if they experience an improvement in their mood. A small proportion of SSRI users experience side effects such as decreased libido, weight gain, and tiredness. Although these effects can understandably be distressing, they are also commonly transient and manageable. If Kennedy\u2019s efforts lead to widespread de-prescribing of antidepressants, it would be a potentially harmful overreaction to a limited problem.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kennedy\u2019s focus on antidepressant overprescribing ignores\u2014and may even deepen\u2014a more urgent crisis in psychiatry. The 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that roughly one in three adults who experienced a major depressive episode received no treatment for their illness that year. Evidence suggests that several common barriers drive this undertreatment of depression: People don\u2019t know where to go for help, think they can manage without help, or cannot afford help. In my experience, some depressed patients avoid treatment because they feel that a depression diagnosis is stigmatizing and connotes that they are weak rather than medically ill. The more doubts Kennedy and other officials instill about antidepressants, the more likely some people who really need them may be to turn them down. \u201cThe United States is facing a growing challenge of overmedicalization in behavioral health care,\u201d Emily Hilliard, an HHS spokesperson, told The Atlantic<\/em> in an email. \u201cUnder Secretary Kennedy\u2019s leadership, HHS is committed to ensuring that patients and clinicians have transparent information about the benefits, risks, side effects, and potential withdrawal effects of psychiatric medications so they can make informed, evidence-based treatment decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depression is a serious illness, and discouraging people who need antidepressants from seeking them\u2014or enacting policies that impede access to them\u2014would only spur on its greatest harms. Roughly half of people who experience an episode of major depression will go on to have a chronic course of the illness. That means many patients cannot stop taking antidepressants without a significant risk of relapse or worse: Depression carries a lifetime suicide risk of about 2 to 9 percent, with more severe forms of the disease corresponding to higher risk. In this sense, depressed patients are dependent on their SSRIs in the same way that people with high blood pressure are dependent on their antihypertensive drugs. To mitigate the risk of fatal complications of the illness, you might have to stay on the treatment for life. That kind of dependency is something that competent clinicians and health-policy experts should encourage.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, by contrast, has likened antidepressant dependence to heroin addiction. \u201cListen, I know people, including members of my family, who\u2019ve had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than people have getting off heroin,\u201d he told a Senate committee at his confirmation hearing last year. But the fact is that, unlike an opiate such as heroin, antidepressants do not make people high and do not result in habituation, which requires users to take ever-larger doses to maintain their clinical effect. And although research on tapering is somewhat limited, one of the largest available studies shows that any withdrawal symptoms tend to be mild and dissipate within weeks.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s desire to reduce Americans\u2019 reliance on antidepressants fits in with his larger antipathy toward pharmaceuticals, especially vaccines. He generally seems to believe that eating and exercising well is all that is necessary for health. In the case of depression, he favors non-drug alternatives, such as psychotherapy, exercise, and \u201creal food.\u201d But I\u2019ve seen many patients in exemplary physical health\u2014for example, triathletes and serious swimmers who adhere to strict diets\u2014become suicidally depressed. Taking an antidepressant after you have tried exercise, a healthy diet, and psychotherapy isn\u2019t a sign of weakness or a character flaw. It\u2019s a recognition that disease has an underlying biological basis\u2014and that sometimes, you need medication to get better.<\/p>\n

Read more Spider-Man\u2019s Not-So-Great Responsibility<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Americans overuse SSRIs. In fact, too many people who need depression treatment aren\u2019t getting any.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Americans overuse SSRIs. In fact, too many people who need depression treatment aren\u2019t getting any.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"The Real Antidepressant Crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700\"},\"wordCount\":1503,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700\",\"name\":\"The Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":625},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1700#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Real Antidepressant Crisis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros","og_description":"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Americans overuse SSRIs. In fact, too many people who need depression treatment aren\u2019t getting any.","og_url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700","og_site_name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","article_published_time":"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"headline":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis","datePublished":"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700"},"wordCount":1503,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif","articleSection":["Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700","name":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis - Commercial Relocation Pros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif","datePublished":"2026-07-30T20:18:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e5d6b6a02b66e894ce05528ec7bf8226.avif","width":1200,"height":625},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1700#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Real Antidepressant Crisis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/","name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}