Is America on Too Many Psychiatric Drugs?

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As part of a year-long investigation, WSJ’s Shalini Ramachandran and Betsy McKay have been reporting on two of the most commonly prescribed psychiatric medications in America: benzodiazepines and antidepressants. These drugs weren’t intended for long-term use, but some Americans end up on them for years. Betsy and Shalini spoke to many patients who experienced the downsides. So a basic question popped up: Is America overmedicated? Further Listening: - A Quick Fix for Hair Loss Is Making Some Men Sick - Uncontrolled Substances, Part 1: Subscribe and Prescribe Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I started taking this little happy pill about, I think, a little over four months ago.
0:10.8	On social media, especially TikTok, there's a growing community of young people talking about their antidepressants.
0:18.7	This video is for all of the Lexap ProBaddies out there, like my little
0:21.9	Prozac girlies, my Wellbutrin girlies, my Zoloft homies. I started diving down and pretty
0:31.3	quickly came across hashtags like Lexa Pro Girlie and Lexa Ho.
0:38.3	Oh, TikTok.
0:39.3	Yeah.
0:40.3	It was just huge.
0:42.3	I'm Betsy McKay.
0:45.3	I'm a senior writer covering health and medicine for the Wall Street Journal.
0:49.3	And I'm Shalani Ramachendran.
0:51.3	I'm an investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
0:55.3	For over a year now, Betsy and Shalini have been on an investigative journey into some of the most
0:59.9	commonly prescribed medications out there, psychiatric drugs. I mean, we've talked to hundreds of people
1:05.5	at this point. We've talked to patients. We've talked to doctors. We've talked to doctors.
1:11.8	We've talked to researchers.
1:14.1	As they dug into psychiatric drugs, they found that corner of the internet where thousands
1:18.4	of people are sharing their positive experiences.
1:21.4	On TikTok alone, the hashtag antidepressants has more than 1.3 billion views.
1:27.0	I feel like one thing that Lexpro has
1:29.1	indirectly done for me is allow me to see a different perspective of like life isn't just all
1:36.2	pain. There were a lot of times before I was on medication that I just was not okay, felt
	...

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