The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to shift the standard of care toward prevention and a more holistic approach to mental health.

In a landmark shift in mental health priorities, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday launched an action plan designed to de-emphasize the prescribing of psychiatric drugs, ensure fully informed consent, support patients’ tapering off the drugs, and promote evidenced-based nondrug approaches to mental health.

In announcing HHS’s new direction, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said: “Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications—especially among children.  We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach to mental health.”

A stated aim is to curb the prescribing of psychiatric drugs.  “Through a multipronged approach including education and outreach, program and policy actions, and research-to-practice efforts, HHS is working to prevent the unnecessary initiation of psychiatric medications and support the tapering and discontinuation for patients not experiencing clinical benefit,” HHS announced.

HHS intends to bring more scrutiny to the harms of psychiatric drugs and the benefits of alternative mental health treatments.  “HHS agencies are bringing together their collective expertise and aligning to evaluate prescription patterns for psychiatric medications, their benefits and potential harms, and elevate the role of nonmedication treatments and scalable, evidence-based solutions to improve mental health.”

In a so-called “Dear Colleague Letter” published yesterday to notify mental health providers of this seismic shift in orientation towards mental health treatment, HHS wrote that it was “emphasiz[ing] the importance of ensuring that treatment planning for mental health conditions includes meaningful access to evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions.”

“Medication should not be understood as the only treatment option,” the letter admonishes.

Among the letter’s list of evidence-based, nondrug strategies are social connections, lifestyle and behavioral changes, physical activity, and proper sleep and diet.  The letter helpfully provides the billing codes already available for delivery of such holistic treatment.

Additionally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance for physicians and other prescribers on assisting patients in tapering off psychiatric drugs, pointing to “deprescribing” guidelines from professional societies, peer-reviewed protocols, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Over the next several months, HHS plans a series of education and outreach activities to increase awareness of the harms of psychiatric drugs, approaches for tapering off, and nondrug treatments.

Researchers over the past few years have questioned the efficacy and safety of many psychiatric drugs.  Antidepressants, used by more than 45 million Americans, were found in one recent study to be no more effective than placebo (dummy pills) for 6 out of 7 people (85%) taking them, while other research has found that any apparent benefit of the drug over placebo is not clinically meaningful.

While getting little, if any, real benefit from antidepressants, users are exposed to the risks of many serious harms:  stroke and heart disease, heat stroke, sudden cardiac death, osteoporosis and bone fractures,  risks to pregnant women and newborns, sexual dysfunction that can be permanent, worse socioeconomic outcomes, increased risk of suicidal behavior, and withdrawal symptoms that can be severe and long-lasting. 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights’ (CCHR) most recent documentary, Prescription for Violence, details the dangerous link between psychiatric drugs and violence.

“For nearly six decades, CCHR has investigated and exposed the harms of psychiatric drugs and practices and called for government reforms,“ said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “These actions by HHS are an extremely important step forward in correcting the nearly sole reliance on psychiatric drugs as mental health treatment – drugs which the latest scientific research finds do more harm than good – and advancing awareness and the ‘prescribing’ of effective nondrug approaches to improving mental health.”

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other qualified healthcare provider.

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.