In May, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a plan to address what it calls "psychiatric overprescribing." Antidepressants—especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Lexapro—are likely to become the central test case. They are common, politically salient, and prescribed for conditions ranging from major depression to anxiety, pain, insomnia, and distress that may or may not meet the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis.
Contrary to the most alarming reports, HHS has not announced an antidepressant ban, and it has not advised current users to hop off their medications. The agency's stated goal is to "promote appropriate psychiatric prescribing" and support "deprescribing when clinically indicated." Although that is unobjectionable as far as it goes, there is a serious danger that the HHS initiative could drift from clinical guidance into potentially devastating access limitations, especially because "better prescribing" and "less prescribing" are easily confused.
