RFK Jr. advances HHS antidepressant tapering guidance
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pressing forward with an HHS initiative to help Americans stop taking psychiatric drugs through forthcoming clinical guidance on deprescribing
- Dozens of mental health professionals met with federal health officials earlier this month to map out clinical guidance instructing providers on how to taper patients off antidepressants — a meeting HHS had discussed but whose outlines had not been previously reported
- Meeting participants reviewed deprescribing guidance from European nations and worked on recommendations for nonmedication-based mental health options such as therapy
- A senior HHS official said the group discussed research gaps around deprescribing SSRIs, including side effects that vary by drug and by how long the patient had been on them
- The talks addressed how to distinguish SSRI withdrawal side effects from a return of patients' depressive symptoms, a core clinical challenge in tapering protocols
Why it matters: HHS is moving to formalize clinical guidance on tapering patients off antidepressants, drawing on European deprescribing models and pairing tapering advice with nonmedication alternatives. The forthcoming recommendations aim to standardize practice for U.S. prescribers handling SSRI discontinuation, where protocols currently vary and research gaps the meeting acknowledged remain unresolved.
