Fact check: RFK Jr. suggested that SSRIs are as addictive as heroin. Here’s why that’s wrong

During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota asked him about his stance on people who take antidepressants.

“I know people, including members of my family, who’ve had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than they have getting off of heroin,” Kennedy responded.

While many of Kennedy’s beliefs are questionable, he’s voicing a common misconception around SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Approximately 13% of Americans take SSRIs, which are a type of antidepressant that work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

To begin with, Dr. Sarah Hartz, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, points out that there is a difference between being addicted to a substance and taking a medication for a chronic condition. With the latter, your symptoms may come back if you stop taking medication—which can be the case for people who have severe anxiety or depression, or high blood pressure.

In addition, several medications require patients taper off of them slowly, or they’ll experience unpleasant side effects. These include blood-pressure and heart medications, and, yes, in some cases SSRIs.

A 2024 analysis of 79 studies encompassing 21,000 patients found that approximately one in 30 patients have severe symptoms when they stop using antidepressants.

“With SSRIs, people have different tolerances for how quickly they can get off of them. Some people have to taper, some don’t,” Hartz says.

Furthermore, addiction itself is a tricky term to unpack.

In the most general sense, addiction means a person can’t quit a substance even if they want to. Technically, sugar and caffeine are addictive. So is alcohol. Yet, using them regularly is widely accepted. Likely, when Kennedy compared heroin to SSRIs, he was referring to severe addiction, or what psychiatrists call “substance use disorder.”

Substance use disorder has 11 different criteria, which can be grouped into four categories:

1. Physical dependence: Developing a tolerance for increased amounts of the substance and experiencing withdrawal symptoms when you stop.
2. Risky use: For example, using the substance while driving or continuing to use it despite experiencing mental or physical problems.
3. Social problems: For example, neglecting responsibilities or continuing to use the substance despite it causing problems in relationships.
4. Impaired control: Taking the substance longer than your meant to, having cravings, experiencing an inability to stop, or spending significant amounts of time obtaining, using, or recovering from the substance.

Hartz points out that SSRIs don’t cause these four categories of problems. While, some people do experience withdrawal symptoms and others need to increase their dose, usually taking SSRIs improves someone’s ability to functional socially.

Furthermore, it takes a few weeks for SSRIs to kick in, so they are less likely to be abused or cause impaired control.

“You can’t get high from SSRIs,” says Hartz. “You can take five times the recommended dose and you won’t get high. There’s no instantaneous mood change so people are less likely to misuse them, unlike opioids or stimulants for ADHD.”

SSRIs are also accompanied by side effects such as decreased libido, inability to climax, headaches, and nausea. “I don’t see people taking them when they don’t need them,” Hartz says. “Most people don’t want to take a pill they aren’t getting a benefit from.”

Hartz notes that Kennedy’s statements echo existing stigmas around mental health.

“Psychiatric medications are singled out in a way they shouldn’t be,” Hartz says. “People think mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression aren’t medical problems. They think it’s about self-control and behavior so they feel guilty about seeking help. But depression and anxiety can be debilitating and we have treatments for them.”

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