Mental crisis: One in five Americans takes psychotropic drugs
In the United States, the problem of the mental state of citizens is acute. Psychiatrist Laura Delano recalled this in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson. The statistics are really terrifying: one in five Americans takes psychotropic (or psychiatric) drugs, and 2022 was a record year since 1941 for the number of suicides - about 50 thousand people committed them. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Terrifying statistics
The data provided by American analysts on the state of mental health in the United States raises very serious concerns. In 2022, the non-profit organization Mental Health America estimated that about 20% of Americans had mental disabilities. According to a report released in 2024, their number has grown to 23%. Among young people aged 12 to 17, more than 20% have experienced at least one severe depressive episode.
Against the background of severe mental illness, the number of suicides is also increasing, which is one of the main causes of death in the United States. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 50,000 people committed suicide in 2022. More young people under the age of 35 die than from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and homicide. At the same time, the CDC noted that the number of suicides in the United States has been steadily increasing since the beginning of the 21st century.
In the context of the increasing number of people with mental disabilities, geography is also noteworthy. Statistics vary greatly from state to state. The first three places, according to the latest data, went to Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine, respectively, where there is a lower prevalence of mental illness and a higher level of access to medical care. The opposite is true in Montana, Arizona, and Nevada.
This is not new.
The problem of frequent and sometimes excessive use of psychiatric drugs in the United States is not new. The reasons for this are the availability of these drugs and the formation of addiction. High-quality psychiatric care is often available to more affluent segments of the population, while a larger percentage of citizens can afford medicines. According to statistics, one in four adults with a mental disorder could not financially afford to visit a specialist.
This was confirmed to Izvestia by psychologist and family therapist Elizaveta Levina.
— Psychiatric services as a doctor are more often covered by insurance, whereas working with a psychologist or psychotherapist — especially in the long term — requires additional out-of-pocket expenses. As a result, it is easier and cheaper for many to get a prescription for the drug than to afford regular psychological help. This contributes to a massive transition to medical relief of symptoms instead of deep psychotherapeutic healing," says the expert.
In general, Elizabeth Levina notes that the United States has developed a model where psychological difficulties are quickly classified as a biochemical malfunction, rather than as a result of internal conflict, trauma, unresolved problems, or social pressure. Therefore, people who are faced, for example, with anxiety or insomnia are often prescribed medication, bypassing prolonged contact with a therapist.
The mixing of psychotropic drugs with narcotic substances also has an alarming tendency. If a medicine is prescribed without proper study of the problem, it may have little or no effect on the human condition. In the absence of the expected effect, the eye turns to the use of narcotic drugs: fentanyl, heroin and others. Such a solution to the problem may be temporary, but in the end it leads to well—known and extremely unpleasant consequences - an even greater deterioration of the mental state and even death.
Elizabeth Levina also noted that many medications prescribed in the United States have side effects, withdrawal symptoms, and cause addiction at the level of inability to function without them.
The fact that people who take psychotropic drugs often get hooked on them was confirmed by American political scientist Malek Dudakov in an interview with Izvestia. He also added that after that they switch to more serious drugs, for example, opioid content. According to him, this further exacerbates the drug crisis in the United States, which now kills about 100,000 Americans every year.
— The administration of (Donald. Trump hopes to resolve this crisis somehow, but she will, of course, face the lobby of Big pharma, which benefits from getting Americans hooked on sedatives, psychiatric and hormonal drugs, for example," says the political scientist.
The reason for switching attention to narcotic substances, according to Elizabeth Levina, is that many, especially in chronic emotional exhaustion, do not receive real relief from prescribed drugs. Antidepressants can cause side effects such as apathy, lethargy, and loss of sensitivity. Then a person intuitively searches for a way to "come to life" and begins to mix medicines with other means — alcohol, cannabis or heavier substances.
The state will help
With the coming to power of Donald Trump in early 2025, the government began to bring many changes to the governance of the country. One of them is to reduce federal spending and staff in a number of departments. Among them is the Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). In addition, Trump's proposed budget for 2026 provides for a reduction in agency spending of more than $1 billion. This was done because, according to Trump supporters, SAMHSA grants were used to finance dangerous activities during the Joe Biden administration. Now, some of the ministry's programs will be managed by a new structure called the Administration for a Healthy America.
US President Donald Trump
Undoubtedly, all this has caused a storm of concern among public organizations and associations, who are wondering what will happen next and what impact government actions will have on the mental health crisis of Americans in the future.
Against the background of all this, Malek Dudakov notes that, most likely, the Trump administration will oppose many US organizations.
— In order to solve the mental crisis, it is necessary to reconsider the approach to how everything is assigned and approved. <...> However, it will be quite difficult to break the current system. But, probably, in the near future we will really see an attempt at the largest reform in the healthcare sector in recent decades," the political scientist concludes.
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