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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The DSM-5 does not list antidepressants as one of the substances associated with substance use disorder.
Dependence vs. Addiction
Questions about the addictive potential of antidepressants arent new.
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Das explained that if you take an antidepressant for a while, your body becomes accustomed to it.
Those discontinuation symptoms are a sign that your body is accustomed to the medication.
However, physical dependence on a substance is different than being addicted to it.
The DSM-5 doesn’t use the term addiction.
Instead, it describes patterns of compulsive or uncontrolled drug use in differentsubstance use disorders.
They may experiencewithdrawal symptomsor feel unable to stop taking the drug.
Das compared the difference between dependence and addiction to people’s relationship with caffeine.
For those of us who are daily coffee drinkers, our brain adjusts to the presence of caffeine.
We just dont see people with these addiction symptoms when it comes to antidepressants, Das said.
White House.Establishing the Presidents Make America Healthy Again commission.
2024;11(7):526-535. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00133-0
