RFK Jr., Scientology, and the war on antidepressants

The Trump administration has engaged in a lengthy campaign to discourage the use of antidepressants. The effort has been led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent years spreading misinformation about these types of medications. The Trump administration has specifically targeted selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which include medications like Prozac, Lexapro, and Zoloft.

Kennedy’s claims about antidepressants mirror those of the Church of Scientology, which has a long history of disdain for psychiatry and has targeted psychiatric medications for decades. Kennedy has an ongoing financial relationship with a law firm connected to Scientology that has pursued numerous lawsuits against antidepressant manufacturers.

At a 2023 Scientology event, the church’s current leader, David Miscavige, described psychiatry as “the greatest evil on Earth.” Scientology’s main vehicle for targeting this “evil” is a nonprofit it founded called the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). CCHR runs a museum in Los Angeles called “Psychiatry: Industry of Death” and has produced several documentaries. Among the group’s claims are that psychiatry was responsible for the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, 9/11, and several mass shootings.

One documentary produced by CCHR focuses on the connection between antidepressants and mass shootings in the U.S. The documentary claims that many mass shooters take antidepressants and presents this as evidence that the medications are the cause. Experts say there is no evidence linking antidepressants to mass shootings. A study from Columbia found that around 4% of mass shooters had used antidepressants in their lifetime, which is less than the proportion of all adults in the U.S. who take antidepressants. The documentary also makes the false claim that “psychiatric drugs are among the most addictive on Earth” and compares some of them to cocaine.

Kennedy pushes many of the same myths about antidepressants. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy claimed that SSRIs were harder to quit than heroin. (Experts disagree with this comparison. “Antidepressants and heroin are in different universes when it comes to addiction risk,” Keith Humphreys, an addiction expert, told NPR.) Kennedy has also repeatedly suggested that SSRIs may be linked to mass shootings. In 2025, after a shooting at a school in Minnesota, Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News, “We’re launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”

In 2024, Kennedy said he wanted to create free “wellness farms” in rural areas where people “can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also legal drugs, other psychiatric drugs,” including SSRIs. This is similar to Narconon, a program run by Scientologists to help patients get off prescription medications they claim are addictive. Narconon facilities have faced multiple lawsuits from patients and families of patients who attempted or died by suicide after being taken off their psychiatric medication.

Kennedy’s financial stake in the anti-psychiatry movement

Kennedy’s connection to Scientology’s views on antidepressants is more than ideological — it’s financial.

In CCHR’s anti-SSRI documentary, a lawyer named R. Brent Wisner said, “There’s no question that there’s people right now who are in jail after committing violent crimes who never would have done that if they hadn’t taken these drugs. There’s no question that people right now are dead because of these drugs.”

Wisner’s law firm, Wisner Baum, has led dozens of lawsuits against the manufacturers of psychiatric medications and other psychiatric tools that Scientology has targeted. Kennedy referred clients to the firm and has a contingency fee agreement with them in which he receives a percentage of the payout if they win their cases. During his 2025 nomination process, Kennedy reported receiving over $850,000 in fees from Wisner Baum. He did not specify which cases generated those fees.

After senators criticized the arrangement, Kennedy said he would assign most of his payouts from Wisner Baum to “a non-dependent, adult family member,” rather than giving up the payments entirely. One of Kennedy’s sons, Conor Kennedy, also works at Wisner Baum as an attorney.

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