Opinion: MAHA pushes psychiatric deprescribing agenda, reshaping mental-health language

Sunny Patel, an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Georgetown University, critiques the Mental Health Advocacy (MAHA) movement in a recent opinion piece. He notes her background with SAMHSA and the recent MAHA Institute summit focused on "overmedicalization."

At the summit, the health secretary announced a plan to promote psychiatric deprescribing, including SAMHSA studies of prescribing trends, Medicare guidance on clinician payment for tapering, webinars on holistic care, and a technical expert panel for further recommendations.

Patel argues that this language shift-terms like "wellness," "metabolic dysfunction," and "dependency crisis"-serves to embed a specific agenda while the underlying programs needed to address overprescribing are being weakened.

She warns that elevating deprescribing to a cultural default may become a clinical hazard, especially as substantive protections and solutions are dismantled rather than strengthened.