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Posted on 09/12/2026 6:01:28 AM PDT by DoodleBob
Drugs for treating depression are among the most prescribed category of medications in the U.S. – 1 in 6 American adults take them.
Some health researchers and advocates have raised concerns that too many patients are using antidepressants and that patients who want to stop taking them struggle to do so. One of the most prominent voices on this point is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who launched an effort in May 2026 encouraging doctors to find other ways besides antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs to treat depression when possible.
As a psychiatrist for over 35 years, including a past role as the medical director of North Dakota’s Department of Human Services, I’ve seen both the benefits and the problems with antidepressants. In my view, there are grains of truth to claims that they are overused, but the full picture is much more nuanced.
Over half of all antidepressant medications prescribed are a type of drug called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. The first SSRI – fluoxetine, better known by its brand name Prozac – was approved in 1987. A handful of other types of SSRIs, which work through different mechanisms, also exists.
Antidepressants can be helpful for moderate to severe depression, but they are typically not warranted for mild depression, as the side effects might outweigh any potential benefits. For mild depression, many effective nonmedication treatments exist.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has encouraged doctors to steer patients away from antidepressants when possible.However, the distinction between mild and more severe symptoms sometimes gets lost. In everyday language, people use the term “depression” to describe everything from a minor sense of the blahs to a serious clinical condition requiring treatment.
Healthcare workers in primary care clinics routinely screen patients for depression using a widely used questionnaire. This tool can be effective in flagging patients who might need further testing or treatment. But in my experience, if used on its own to diagnose, it can be easily misinterpreted.
A person having a bad week or two who scores higher on a screening test might be prescribed a medication that was not necessary. But the tool can also fail to flag people who do need care. Over a third of people who die by suicide have visited a primary care provider in the month before their death. For those 55 and older, it rises to more than two-thirds.
According to a 2026 analysis, most prescriptions for antidepressants in the U.S. are not written by psychiatrists. In some cases, these medicines are prescribed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants with psychiatric qualifications, but most are written by primary care providers, who are not specialists in mental health.
Clinicians who provide primary care don’t just have less time to evaluate patients’ mental health concerns. They also have less access to ways of treating depression apart from medication, such as talk therapy.
Primary clinics that have behavioral health providers and consult with psychiatrists tend to help patients more effectively and provide more treatment options. These types of collaborative approaches to care are still rare but are becoming more common.
I recall my father, who was a country doctor in general practice, saying that half of his patients’ problems had to do with mental health issues, and he didn’t know how best to help them. Today’s primary care providers do receive more training on mental health issues, and they are often more equipped to recommend lifestyle changes that can be especially helpful for people with less severe depression symptoms.
But it’s simply human nature that when given a choice between taking a daily medication and engaging in activities that require commitment and intention, many will choose medication.
Stigma has been a long-standing barrier in seeking mental healthcare.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety and depression have become more prevalent. That’s particularly true among adolescents and young adults – especially young women, who tend to experience less stigma around mental health issues.
New rules during the pandemic also made it significantly easier for people to access mental health treatment – both therapy and medications – remotely, via telehealth. Such access continues to grow. Before the pandemic, only 1% to 2% of antidepressant medications were prescribed via telehealth. By 2022, it was roughly one-third.
Given these trends, and the fact that clinicians often turn to medication for treating depression regardless of the severity, the uptick in antidepressant prescriptions since 2020 should come as no surprise. Virtual visits allow people to navigate more easily around stigma and find increased and convenient access to care. And many people feel more comfortable getting such care in a primary care clinic rather than a mental health clinic.
For all these reasons, I would say that antidepressant medications are likely overused in some cases. Undoubtedly, some people who take them either don’t benefit from them or could address their symptoms in other ways.
On the other hand, expanded access to mental healthcare – including medication – has also enabled people who need treatment to receive it. Even now, many Americans with serious depression receive no or limited treatment.
What’s more, in my view, this imbalance reflects systemic problems in the U.S. healthcare system at least as much as physicians’ prescribing habits or patients’ requests.
For example, primary care clinics are a great place to screen for mental health issues, but getting proper treatment may involve more specialized care – which many patients can’t access. And on the business side, clinicians get little support in helping patients with lifestyle changes and nonmedication treatments – rather than prescribing drugs.
Kennedy has claimed that for some people, stopping antidepressants can be harder than quitting heroin. Research suggests such extreme effects of discontinuing medication are rare, though not unheard of.
Any time a person is on a medication for a significant period of time, the brain and body adapt to establish a new balance. This happens with other substances, too – as any regular coffee drinker who has tried abruptly quitting knows.
People who want to stop taking antidepressants after being on them for a long time generally do best when they gradually taper their dose over weeks to months, unless they have a specific reason for stopping more quickly.
For antidepressants, clinicians watch for withdrawal symptoms including sleep problems, flu-like symptoms, headaches and an electrical buzzing sensation in the head. A 2024 review of dozens of rigorous studies that compared the experiences of people taking antidepressants with those taking a sugar pill found that roughly a quarter of people stopping antidepressants experienced some withdrawal symptoms, and for 3%, they were severe.
While certain antidepressants might be more likely to cause withdrawal symptoms, it’s tough to tell who might have the most difficulty. And for some patients, depression is a chronic illness for which they must take medication indefinitely.
However, most people working with an experienced clinician are able to successfully discontinue these drugs. Ultimately, what’s most important is that patients are able to consult with a knowledgeable provider in making that decision.
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https://parade.com/news/lindsay-clancy-full-list-medications
The full list of Lindsey Clancy’s medications and the timeline of her prescriptions is listed below.
Mid–Oct. 2022 Zoloft (antidepressant)
Dose: 25 mg → 50 mg prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Oct. 20, 2022 Ativan (anti-anxiety) prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Oct. 20, 2022 Benadryl (sleep aid) prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Nov. 16, 2022 Trazodone (sleep aid)
Dose: Up to 150 mg prescribed by South Shore ER
Nov. 21-25, 2022 Prozac (antidepressant)
Dose: 10 mg prescribed by NP Julie Paul
Nov. 25, 2022 Ambien (sleep aid) prescribed by NP Julie Paul
Nov. 25, 2022 Remeron (antidepressant/sleep aid) prescribed by NP Julie Paul
Nov. 25, 2022 Klonopin (anti-anxiety) prescribed by NP Julie Paul
Nov. 29, 2022-Jan. 3, 2023 Seroquel (anti-psychotic/bipolar treatment)
Dose: Increased to 400 mg/day prescribed by Rebecca Jollotta, NCP
Dec. 6 Valium benzodiazepine (anti-anxiety) prescribed by Rebecca Jollotta, NCP
Mid-Dec. Lamictal (mood stabilizer) prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Jan. 3, 2023 Trazodone (sleep aid) prescribed by McLean Hospital
Jan. 10, 2023 Valium benzodiazepine (anti-anxiety) prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Jan. 16-23, 2023 Amitriptyline tricyclic (antidepressant)
Dose: 10 mg/day → 20 mg/day prescribed by Dr. Jennifer Tufts
Nooo, take another one! The sun will come out tomorrow.
Holycow, a bunch of Big Pharma Poison ☠️💀💀☠️💀☠️☠️
Get yours today !
Two answers. Yes, and hell yes.
Awww jeez, now I’m depressed! Better have another.
WOW. Side effects may cause...
Oh doctor please
Some more of these
Outside the door
She took four more
What a drag it is growing old
Mother's Little Helper — The Rolling Stones
There is no such thing as a ‘chemical imbalance’ that causes psychosis, therefore prescribing SSRIs and SNRIs (both very addictive) does more harm than good.
The explosion of psych drugs came about in the 90s from laws requiring medical insurance to cover mental health.
Within a couple years came all of the ADHD and Autism diagnoses.
We also had the Columbine Massacre - where it was found that both perpetrators were on mental health meds...
All because personal responsibility has been pushed well out of family or school teachings, even some churches don’t teach it.
People choose not to learn how to make everyday choices to best take care of their body. (enough water? enough needed nutrients in food form? Not over eating junk/unhealthy food? Getting out in sunlight or even overcast sky in the morning, so body can reset and naturally get back to healthier sleep? some activity or exercise? etc etc)
Doctors are not to blame when patients don’t bother to do their own responsibilities for their body/mind and want easy fix of Rx. Patient’s choice, and yes prescribing Rx has become main part of doctor’s business.
Lindsay chose it.
“What are antidepressants, and who takes them?” I took an antidepressant once, it made me depressed.
Well…clearly…, you need another one. A different one, this time. But we won’t revoke the other prescription. Maybe 2 will be better than one.
Drugs are a product. Products get marketed. The purpose of marketing is to increase sales to an ever-wider user base. (This is what frightened me about the Covid vaccine. That and the revolving door between pharma companies and the personnel working for the government to approve their products.)
Wow-
Here’s a stat for you: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db564.htm
~1:5 American adults takes psychotropics.
—
Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree here, but it sort of is funny how we villainize weed (specifically Indica) but this tends to make people calm and sleepy, has near zero chance of over dose, is no risk for physical addiction, and your body can easily metabolize it (little stress on liver, kidneys, no lasting effects on brain past 6 months even for heavy long term users)...
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a drug and needs respected (no driving under the influence, not at school, work etc). But we have something which costs “cents on the dollar,” compared to many of these prescriptions which screw with the brain in ways quite frankly even the pharma company fully understands if you start asking more questions.
There are numerous countries which have introduced marijuana to address specifically PTSD, anxiety and sleep disorders. I’m not arguing using bandwagon. I’m saying there is medical literature and somewhat credible data outside the US (the politics and economics of this matter skew the research in the US), regards its effectiveness and safety (going back to 1992 just in this case): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12613726/
I saw my Nurse Practitioner a few weeks back. Before my old-school Primary retired last year, he gave me a prescription for Xanex (10 pills) to help me get to sleep when I’ve got a doc appt the next day. Works like a charm. I usually take 1/4 of a pill and that knocks me out in 15 minutes.
Anyway, That was 2 years ago. I’m down to my last pill, so I asked the NP for another 10. Oh No!
Xanex is now ‘black listed’ she tells me, and she refuses. Rather, she gave me an SSRI that I’m supposed to take twice a day for general anxiety. Nope, not getting on any of those.
As a backup plan, I can just talk it over with Dr. Jack if I have to.
Any birth control?
This is a list only of her antidepressants. No one told her she can’t be taking care of anyone while on these? Was she able to operate a vehicle?
Why was she so depressed?
What’s triggering her supporters?
Is post abortion any way connected to tge insanity here? Or are we still pretending thakilling a child doesn’t affect people?
Indica can cause a lack of REM sleep. CBD can counteract that.
Which ones was she actually on when she viciously murdered her children in a planned attack?
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