RFK Jr. targets SSRI prescribing with debunked heroin-comparison claims

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used a Make America Healthy Again Institute event to announce federal initiatives aimed at reducing antidepressant prescriptions, particularly SSRIs like Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, and Lexapro. The event framed the drugs as part of an ‘overmedicalization’ problem, with participants asserting—without supporting evidence—that Americans, especially youth, are overprescribed and inadequately informed about discontinuation risks.

Kennedy’s rhetoric has a documented history of unsupported and inflammatory claims, including linking SSRIs to mass shootings and asserting that Black children are routinely prescribed Adderall, SSRIs, and benzodiazepines that induce violence—suggesting farm labor as a remedy. He has also repeatedly claimed SSRIs are harder to quit than heroin, a comparison addiction researchers including Stanford’s Keith Humphreys have flatly rejected as scientifically baseless.

Mental health experts are already mobilizing against the new federal push, warning that policy built on debunked premises risks deterring patients from evidence-based treatment for depression, anxiety, and PTSD.