Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new campaign to reduce the use of antidepressants, including encouraging clinicians to “de-prescribe” Medicare patients from the drugs by instead prescribing “non-pharmacological” services such as therapy.
The initiative will also include training for clinicians on the risks of psychiatric medications and how to “taper” patients off the drugs slowly to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms, though the incidence rate of those symptoms is unclear.
“We’re not telling you to stop” any medications, Kennedy said at a Monday event hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, a Kennedy-allied think tank. Instead, the initiative aims to make sure patients and clinicians “have the information and support to make the right decisions for you,” he said.