At least it appears they are. I can imagine the fuss that would cause among mental health professionals.
Trump Administration Review of Psychiatric Meds Raises Concerns
From the article: “…Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will chair the effort.”
That’s not going to reassure the scientific community, since “Kennedy has long expressed skepticism about antidepressants, especially (SSRIs), questioning their safety and suggesting they are as addictive as heroin.”
It is true that when longtime users come off an SSRI regimen, they can experience a “rebound” period where original symptoms return, at least temporarily. But the characteristic profile of drug addiction– compulsive use, loss of control, continuation despite adverse consequences– is nowhere to be found.
And as a number of experts have already pointed out, common antidepressants affect different areas of the brain than do opioids, cocaine, or other addictive substances.
Anyway, to minimize the severity of rebound symptoms, most psychiatrists I know recommend a gradual taper rather than abrupt cessation. It’s a common sense approach, based on experience.
I have heard of rebound symptoms persisting for an extended period, along the lines of long COViD. I imagine that might be attributed to the effect of the depressive disorder that motivated antidepressant use in the first place. After all, antidepressants are a treatment, but they’re not a cure.
I can’t count the number of people who consider these medications to have been nothing short of lifesaving during times of acute distress. It ordinarily takes a few weeks to get the full effects, but after that, the relief they bring can be profound.
As the Medscape article notes, there’s little question that these meds have been overprescribed, and that some patients are better served by a more conservative approach. Antidepressant use is often initiated by primary physicians and other practitioners, who see patients infrequently and are therefore less likely to reassess the need for continued use.
And there are of course issues involved in use of these or any other psychotropic medications with children.
But it seems to me these are in large part correctable issues of practice. They’re not indictments of the medications themselves, only how and when they’re prescribed, and to who.
Anyway, I don’t see how it helps to make frivolous comparisons with heroin addiction. That does nothing to inspire public confidence in the proposed review.
