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Misinformation about Psychiatric Medications
RFK Jr. is wrong: modern medications for depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia can be life changing and life saving
Just a week into his role as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has already “spoken out” against SSRI anti-depressants, anti-psychotic and mood stabilizing psychiatric medications, calling them “as addictive as heroin” and stating publicly that they may cause school shootings.*
These careless false statements should make all of us angry.
One of the reasons they are bunkum is that there is — or at last has been, before the random firings of the current administration — a robust set of procedures for clinical trials and drug approvals in our country. We aren’t just putting medicines out there; research and clinical trials are done systematically with oversight. This is one of the ways government and government-funded institutions work to keep us safe and improve our health in this country.
You know they’ve all been tested in carefully regulated clinical trials, right, Mr. Secretary?
Yet, before anyone imagined that RFK Jr. might be in charge of our nation’s health, there was already a small but growing sector in our society…