{"id":91330,"date":"2026-04-20T01:42:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/trump-learns-only-20-30-of-people-respond-to-antidepressants-thats-not-great\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T01:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:42:30","slug":"trump-learns-only-20-30-of-people-respond-to-antidepressants-thats-not-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/trump-learns-only-20-30-of-people-respond-to-antidepressants-thats-not-great\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Learns Only 20-30% Of People Respond To Antidepressants: “That’s Not Great…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

During an executive order signing on Saturday (full video here)<\/a> to fast-track the approval of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions, President Trump appeared interested to find out that standard antidepressants don’t really work for most people. After hearing 20% of women take them, Trump asked again: “Do they work?” “There’s highly problematic research on the fact that over 20% of U.S. women are on these drugs that are prescribed for life,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary continued. “But, Mr. President, what you and Secretary Kennedy unlocked is, for the first time, questioning this system-where we spend three times more per capita than any other country in the world, and we are living six to seven years less. We have the highest rates of suicide and depression in the developed world. ” A woman in the audience interjected: They don’t work-I’m on a couple of them. “So the antidepressants, all that we read about all the time and we prescribe to our military-they’re not very effective?” Trump asked again. Makary continued: <\/p>\n

DR. MARTY MAKARY, FDA COMMISSIONER: There’s one thing I’d add. There’s nothing more expensive right now than the mental health crisis in America. Twenty-one percent of Americans have a diagnosable mental health condition. The second leading cause of death for young adults today is suicide. Mr. President, antidepressants right now are the most prescribed class of medications in the country. Over 20% of women are on an antidepressant. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Is that good? In terms of-do they work? DR. MARTY MAKARY: There’s highly problematic research on the fact that over 20% of U.S. women are on these drugs that are prescribed for life. We have a mental health crisis- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Do they work? [UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER]: No. They don’t for me-I’m on a couple of them-he asked, but no, it is definitely an issue. DR. MARTY MAKARY: But, Mr. President, what you and Secretary Kennedy unlocked is, for the first time, questioning this system-where we spend three times more per capita than any other country in the world, and we are living six to seven years less. We have the highest rates of suicide and depression in the developed world. The incentives of our system-by the way, autism, which we’re really working hard on, right, Bob-we have the highest rates, and we’re coming up with some pretty amazing findings… We are struggling, and we’re paying more than any other country. And the power of this executive order is really representative and gives validation to the cries of MAHA moms-because for the first time, it’s taking a therapy that’s one time. This is a one-time, one-time-not a lifetime drug-that can change someone’s life. And that’s the power. And I think that’s why the system- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So the antidepressants, all that we read about all the time and we prescribe to our military-they’re not very effective? DR. MARTY MAKARY: It’s a lifetime drug. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, even if it’s lifetime-but do they-look at what’s happened as we’ve prescribed them and made them one of the most prescribed. The numbers are not great. [UNIDENTIFIED SCIENTIST]: I think what’s really important about your order is you include-we really want to understand why these rapid-acting treatments work. We need that for every treatment in mental health illnesses. Standard antidepressants-in research, they do work for some people, but certainly not everyone. And if we think of cancer or other conditions, we have a test to know which treatment is needed-and we don’t have that for mental illness. It’s guesswork. So with that, it either works or it doesn’t work, and you have the results-you don’t know. It’s part of this order. I think it’s really important that we’re able to have the investment to understand who this works for and the tests to accompany that. So thank you for making that possible. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Do you think this can be a big step above antidepressants-what we’re doing? [UNIDENTIFIED SCIENTIST]: I think it can be identifying who doesn’t respond to an antidepressant straight away, rather than waiting for years. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: What percentage of people respond positively to antidepressants? [UNIDENTIFIED SCIENTIST]: Twenty to thirty percent. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That’s not great. [UNIDENTIFIED SCIENTIST]: No. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That’s not great.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

RealClearPolitics Videos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During an executive order signing on Saturday (full video here) to fast-track the approval of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions, President Trump appeared interested to find out that standard antidepressants don’t really work for most people. After hearing 20% of women take them, Trump asked again: “Do they work?” “There’s highly problematic research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3895,6174,28816,462,4124,1897,321,7997,5395],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}