Are too many Americans taking antidepressants?

More than half of U.S. adults who take antidepressants do so through selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a category that includes fluoxetine (Prozac), first approved in 1987. Yet a U.S. debate is intensifying over whether antidepressants are being prescribed too broadly. In May 2026, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched an effort urging doctors to consider other treatment options for depression when possible. The article notes that mild depression is often not helped enough to outweigh side effects and that screening tools in primary care can both miss people and misclassify temporary low moods as clinical depression.