Two things can be true at the same time – it can both be true that SSRIs are overprescribed AND that they are a necessary tool in treating mental health diagnoses. The new administration has made antidepressants the scapegoat for a host of societal/political issues, including gun violence.

As a licensed mental health practitioner, one who has had personal experience titrating off an SSRI, and clocked thousands of clinical hours working with humans who take this class of medication, I’m alarmed.

One in every 10 Americans takes an antidepressant (these are pre-COVID numbers, I would hypothesize that number drastically increases in forthcoming research due to the stressors COVID brought to us all). Of that population, 25% take them for 10 years or longer. This was never the intention of this class of drugs and ZERO studies even examine the usage effects over a similar duration of time. New 2020 research out of Harvard indicates that less than one-third of those individuals taking a single antidepressant (as opposed to multiple prescriptions) have seen a mental health professional in the past year.