RFK Jr. Says Antidepressants Are Dangerous. Here’s What Mental Health Experts Say -

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), says he wants to assess whether it’s truly safe and effective for millions of Americans to take certain antidepressants and other prescription drugs to manage mental health conditions.

He has a broad mandate to do this as HHS secretary and head of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission that President Donald Trump established with an executive order last week.

A key goal of the new commission is to “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs], antipsychotics, [and] mood stabilizers.”

SSRIs are a category of antidepressants that includes citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft).

Roughly 13 percent of American adults report recent antidepressant use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making these drugs among the most prescribed medicines in the United States.

Kennedy has raised concerns that antidepressants may do more harm than good, calling these medicines addictive and linking them to mass shootings and other acts of violence.

Here’s what health experts have to say about the concerns Kennedy has raised regarding antidepressants.

Are Antidepressants Addictive?

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy suggested that antidepressants could be even more addictive than heroin.

“I know people, including members of my family, who’ve had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than people have getting off of heroin,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearings.

While people can experience withdrawal symptoms from abruptly stopping treatment with antidepressants, these medicines aren’t habit forming, says Ragy Girgis, MD, a clinical psychiatry professor at Columbia University.

“SSRIs have no addictive potential, while heroin is one of the most addictive substances known to humankind,” Dr. Girgis says.

Abruptly halting treatment with SSRIs can cause flu-like symptoms, restlessness, insomnia, anxiety, and an upset stomach, says Colin Davidson, PhD, a neuropharmacologist at the University of Central Lancashire in England.

“Abrupt withdrawal from heroin will likely cause drug cravings, anxiety, nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever, sweating, and increased heart rate and blood pressure,” Dr. Davidson says. Compared with withdrawal from antidepressants, he notes, “Withdrawal from heroin tends to be much worse.”

People taking antidepressants can minimize withdrawal symptoms by working with their doctor to gradually reduce their dose when they want to discontinue treatment, Girgis says.

Can Antidepressants Make Kids Suicidal?

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy questioned whether there’s enough evidence that antidepressants are safe and effective. Investigating the safety of antidepressants — particularly for use by children and teens — is a key focus of the MAHA Commission that Kennedy leads.

Antidepressants do have what’s known as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration “black box warning,” reserved for the most severe side effects, due to concerns that children and teens taking these medicines have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

But the overall risk of suicide among young people is low, Davidson says. About 1 percent of teens may experience suicidal thoughts or behaviors at some point during adolescence, Davidson says, and this risk rises to about 2 percent of teens who are taking antidepressants.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the medicines make people suicidal, Girgis says. Suicidal thoughts can be caused by the underlying mental heath issues that lead people to take antidepressants.

“When people are very depressed and want to take their own life, they will not report suicidality,” Girgis says.

This changes when they start taking antidepressants, Girgis explains. “When people begin taking SSRIs, they improve — their mood, energy, and willingness to engage increase. They are less likely to want to take their life and more likely to want help. Because of all these factors, they begin reporting their suicidal ideation. Therefore, while it appears that SSRIs ‘cause’ suicidal ideation, they do not actually cause suicidal ideation.”

Do Antidepressants Cause Mass Shootings?

During a 2023 livestream on X with billionaire Elon Musk, Kennedy suggested that people taking antidepressants are more likely to commit school shootings than individuals who don’t use these medicines. He said there was “tremendous circumstantial evidence” linking these drugs to mass shootings, and these comments came up during his confirmation hearings.

But evidence doesn’t support this claim.

One study of school shootings between 2000 and 2017, for example, found that most perpetrators had no history of taking psychiatric medications and found no significant connection between the shootings and these drugs.

Similarly, the Violence Prevention Project’s Mass Shooter Database, a compilation of records from all mass shootings in the United States since 1966, found no evidence in the majority of incidents that the perpetrators had used psychiatric medications.

“Antidepressants, in rare cases, can cause intense inner restlessness, emotional blunting, mania, and psychosis, all of which could contribute to violence,” Davidson says. But this is rare, and it doesn’t mean the medicines directly cause shootings.

“There is no evidence to suggest that antidepressants, or any psychiatric medications, play a role in mass shootings or homicide, and the black box warning has nothing to do with violence or homicidality,” Girgis says.

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