are antidepressants overprescribed, especially in the united states?
“but but then they're overprescribed I feel like especially in the United States”
a host said on Huberman Lab, 2026-09-21, at 33:24. hear it in context →
first, the part that holds
the host is right that a large share of US antidepressant prescribing goes to people who don't meet criteria for the condition the drug is usually given for: in one national survey only 38.4% of adults whose clinician had identified depression met structured-interview criteria for major depression, and most of the rest were still on psychiatric medication. US children and teens also use antidepressants at higher rates than children and teens in the European countries that have been compared directly.
what we found when we went and looked
we read four US national datasets and two cross-country studies. in US survey data, a majority of people treated for depression did not screen positive for it (70.1% in 2012-13) or did not meet structured-interview criteria (61.6% in 2009-10), so overtreatment is documented. the same survey also found that 71.3% of adults who screened positive got no depression treatment at all. so the record shows medication going to the wrong people as well as too much medication, not a simple surplus. US youth use runs roughly 1.5 to 3 times higher than in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. among older adults, though, Ontario and Taiwan had higher rates than a US health system, and no study we found measured the share of inappropriate prescriptions in the US against other countries, so the "especially in the United States" part is unproven.
assertion by assertion
| assertion | verdict | what the record says |
|---|---|---|
| antidepressants (the claim says SSRIs) are prescribed in the US more often than clinically warranted | overstated | overtreatment is documented. among 5,639 US adults with clinician-identified depression (NSDUH 2009-10), only 38.4% met 12-month major depressive episode criteria (14.3% of those 65 and over), and "a majority of both groups" were prescribed and used psychiatric medications. the authors conclude that overdiagnosis and overtreatment are common. in MEPS 2012-13, only 29.9% of adults treated for depression screened positive on the PHQ-2. but the same data show 71.3% of screen-positive adults untreated, so the authors call it misallocation, not a net surplus. the PHQ-2 is a two-week snapshot, and people whose symptoms improved on treatment would screen negative. the data cover all antidepressants, not SSRIs alone. [2][3] |
| this overprescribing is especially pronounced in the United States compared with other countries | unverifiable | none of the sources we read compares the inappropriate share of prescriptions between the US and other countries. the only cross-country study that looked at indications, a 2019 cohort of older adults across four countries, found depression documented in only about 2 in 10 new users across the sites, the exception being Quebec City/Montreal at about 4 in 10, so prescribing without a documented depression diagnosis was the norm well beyond the US. higher US use alone does not show that more of it is unwarranted. [5] |
| popular reading: the US uses more antidepressants than comparable countries | overstated | true for youth. in 2000, US youth prevalence (1.63%) was at least 3 times that of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (0.11-0.54%). in 2012, US youth were at 1.6%, against 1.1% in the UK, 1.0% in Denmark, 0.6% in the Netherlands and 0.5% in Germany. for older adults, a US health system (12.3% new use, 2009-14) was nearly double England (6.6%) but below Ontario (15.3%) and Taiwan (18.6%). the US is high, not uniquely high. [4][5][6] |
| context: how many US adults take antidepressants | confirmed | NHANES 2015-2018: 13.2% of adults used an antidepressant in the past 30 days (17.7% of women, 8.4% of men). from 2009-10 to 2017-18, use rose among women (13.8% to 18.6%) but not significantly among men. the brief doesn't address whether that use is appropriate. [1] |
both directions
for the speaker: two national US surveys show that most people receiving depression treatment did not meet criteria or screen positive at the time: 61.6% of adults with clinician-identified depression did not meet structured-interview criteria (2009-10), and 70.1% of adults treated for depression screened negative (2012-13). the first of these studies concludes in plain terms that "depression overdiagnosis and overtreatment is common in community settings in the USA." about one in eight US adults used an antidepressant in any given month in 2015-2018. US youth have used antidepressants at higher rates than youth in four European comparison countries in every study year we found, at least three times higher in 2000. among older adults, a US health system's rate of new use was nearly double England's.
against: the study that best supports overtreatment also found the reverse problem: 71.3% of US adults who screened positive for depression received no depression treatment. its authors describe care that is badly matched to need, not simply too much of it. the claim names SSRIs, but every dataset here counts all antidepressants, including drugs given for pain, sleep and migraine. among older adults, the US site was not the highest: Ontario and Taiwan had higher rates of new use. prescribing without a documented depression diagnosis (about 8 in 10 new users) was common across all the countries in that study, so it is not a distinctly American pattern on that evidence. a higher volume of prescribing in the US is a different question from a higher share of unwarranted prescribing, and nothing we read measures the second.
what this cannot say
"overprescribed" has no agreed measure. survey screens like the PHQ-2 capture the past two weeks, so a person whose depression lifted on medication counts as "treated without symptoms," which inflates apparent overtreatment. structured-interview criteria cover major depression only, so legitimate prescribing for anxiety, OCD, pain or past episodes counts as "not meeting criteria." the US data in the cross-country studies are regional or single-system (a claims dataset in 2000, one Boston health system for older adults), not national. the newest comparison data run to 2014, and we found no cross-country adult comparison that includes the US at the national level, partly because the main international antidepressant series leaves the US out. we did not separate out SSRIs. we searched only the hosts allowed for this check, so a study that compares appropriateness across countries could exist on another host.
sources, each one fetched and read
- Brody DJ, Gu Q. Antidepressant use among adults: United States, 2015-2018. NCHS Data Brief No. 377, CDC, 2020 What we read there: During 2015–2018, 13.2% of adults aged 18 and over used antidepressant medications in the past 30 days. Use was higher among women (17.7%) than men (8.4%). Use among women rose from 13.8% (2009-10) to 18.6% (2017-18). Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db377.htm
- Olfson M, Blanco C, Marcus SC. Treatment of adult depression in the United States. JAMA Intern Med 2016;176(10):1482-1491. PMID 27571438 What we read there: Approximately 8.4% of adults screened positive for depression, of which 28.7% received any depression treatment. Among treated adults, 29.9% had screen-positive depression... Most US adults who screen positive for depression did not receive treatment for depression, whereas most who were treated did not screen positive. Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27571438/
- Mojtabai R. Clinician-identified depression in community settings: concordance with structured-interview diagnoses. Psychother Psychosom 2013;82(3):161-9. PMID 23548817 What we read there: Only 38.4% of participants with 12-month clinician-identified depression met the 12-month MDE criteria... A majority of both groups, however, were prescribed and used psychiatric medications. Depression overdiagnosis and overtreatment is common in community settings in the USA. Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23548817/
- Bachmann CJ, Aagaard L, Burcu M, et al. Trends and patterns of antidepressant use in children and adolescents from five western countries, 2005-2012. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2016;26(3):411-9. PMID 26970020 What we read there: Youth antidepressant prevalence 2005/6 to 2012: US 1.3% to 1.6%, UK 0.7% to 1.1%, Denmark 0.6% to 1.0%, Netherlands 0.5% to 0.6%, Germany 0.3% to 0.5%. Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26970020/
- Tamblyn R, Bates DW, Buckeridge DL, et al. Multinational comparison of new antidepressant use in older adults: a cohort study. BMJ Open 2019. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027663 What we read there: Age-standardized incidence of new antidepressant use 2009-2014: Boston (Partners HealthCare primary care) 12.3%, England 6.6%, Ontario 15.3%, Taiwan 18.6%; depression was documented in only 2 in 10 users, the exception being Quebec City/Montreal where 4 out of 10 were prescribed antidepressants for depression. Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6530307
- Zito JM, Tobi H, de Jong-van den Berg LT, et al. Antidepressant prevalence for youths: a multi-national comparison. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2006;15(11):793-8. PMID 16715536 What we read there: ATD medication utilization in the US dataset (1.63%) exceeded that of three Western European countries (prevalence ranged from 0.11 to 0.54%) by at least 3-fold (year 2000 claims data, ages 0-19). Fetched 2026-10-28 (HTTP 200). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16715536/
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