New Federal Initiative to Curb Psychiatric Overprescribing and Promote Holistic Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has introduced a new federal action plan designed to reduce the overprescribing of psychiatric medications. The initiative focuses on promoting appropriate prescribing practices and implementing deprescribing strategies when they are clinically indicated for patients.

The plan was announced on May 4, 2026, during a summit on mental health and overmedicalization hosted by the MAHA Institute. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Served as the closing speaker at the event, where he detailed the department’s efforts to address the current state of psychiatric medication use in the United States.

According to the department, the primary objective of the action plan is to curb psychiatric overprescribing while ensuring that medication is used appropriately. A central component of this strategy is the promotion of deprescribing, which is the supervised process of reducing or stopping medications that may no longer be beneficial or may be causing harm to the patient.

The initiative arrives as part of a broader focus on overmedicalization within the mental health field. By emphasizing the need for prescribing to be appropriate and clinically indicated, the HHS aims to shift the approach toward medication management in psychiatric care.

While the overarching goals of the action plan have been established, the specific clinical guidelines or regulatory mechanisms that will be used to drive these changes across the healthcare system were not detailed in the initial announcement.