RFK Jr. comes for psych meds

The government just hit the brakes

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used a mental health summit to roll out a federal push aimed at “deprescribing” psychiatric medications — basically the supervised reduction or discontinuation of meds when doctors think that’s the right move. He framed it as part of a bigger crackdown on what he calls overuse in the U.S. mental health system.

The pitch is pretty blunt: more patient autonomy, more informed consent, more shared decision-making, and less of the “here’s a prescription, good luck” playbook. Kennedy said the goal is to move care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach.

Why drugmakers are paying attention

This isn’t an immediate earnings whack to one company, but it’s exactly the kind of policy chatter that can change the mood music around a whole drug category. If Washington starts leaning harder into skepticism about psychiatric prescriptions, that can mean more scrutiny, more documentation, and potentially more friction around growth stories in mental health.

That matters for names tied to this space:

• Johnson & Johnson has been expanding the reach of Spravato.
• Bristol Myers Squibb got a green light for Cobenfy last year.
• Eli Lilly still has legacy blockbuster antidepressants in the mix.
• Reviva Pharmaceuticals is working through additional schizophrenia studies after FDA feedback.

Big picture

SAMHSA is supposed to produce a report on national prescribing patterns, and HHS also sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter saying psychiatric drugs shouldn’t be treated like the only answer. So this is less “one drug gets banned tomorrow” and more “the policy weather just got cloudier.” For investors, that means mental-health pharma could face more headline risk, even if the science and prescribing realities are a lot messier than a campaign slogan.