The federal health department will begin a series of steps intended to curb antidepressant use in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr announced this week.

Antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have long been a target for Kennedy, the Trump administration’s health secretary, who talked about the plans at an event Monday hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization focused on advancing the MAHA agenda. He has claimed without evidence that the drugs are linked to a rise in school shootings and has expressed concerns about weaning off the medications and withdrawal symptoms.

In a press release about the plans, the Department of Health and Human Services said its intent was to “curb psychiatric overprescribing” and promote “deprescribing when clinically indicated”.

During the event, Kennedy said he recognized the role of psychiatric medications, but that his department “will no longer treat them as the default, we will treat them as one option, to be used when…