SSRIs: Are They Helping or Hurting?
New Executive Order takes aim at SSRIs and other psychiatric medications
February 20, 2025
This is the first letter in a new series: Meds In America where I will be myth-dispelling, educating, and advocating about deprescribing psychiatric medication in America.
I wrote the original ‘Antidepressants: Are we getting better? in 2021. Given the new administration’s recent Executive Order and cabinet members’ comments about SSRIs and other psychiatric medications, a follow-up is necessary.
More than 16% (as of 2020) of Americans take the medications that the MAHA Executive Order addresses. The percentage likely increased during the COVID pandemic though comprehensive national data on prescription rates beyond 2020 are limited. The EO states:
“assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs;
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