Updated · Drexel University The Triangle Online · Jun 6
Kennedy Unveils 3-Part Federal Plan to Curb Psychiatric Drug Overuse as Experts Warn on Access
Updated
Updated · Drexel University The Triangle Online · Jun 6
Kennedy Unveils 3-Part Federal Plan to Curb Psychiatric Drug Overuse as Experts Warn on Access
3 articles · Updated · Drexel University The Triangle Online · Jun 6
Summary
A joint HHS directive signed by 4 federal agencies calls for provider training, new deprescribing guidance and CMS reimbursement changes to address psychiatric medication overuse, especially involving SSRIs.
The letter takes a more cautious line than Kennedy’s public rhetoric, saying medications can be essential and warning patients not to stop abruptly; it frames deprescribing as an individualized clinical process.
Children, adolescents, older adults, pregnant and postpartum patients, people on multiple psychiatric drugs and foster youth are singled out as groups at higher risk of overprescribing.
Psychiatrists and advocacy groups backed stronger informed consent, psychotherapy access and responsible prescribing, but warned that portraying the crisis mainly as overmedicalization could stigmatize treatment and restrict care.
The dispute has widened beyond antidepressants to the mental health system itself, with experts arguing prescribing patterns cannot be separated from trauma, social conditions and persistent shortages of comprehensive care.