Are President Donald Trump and his administration going after the most commonly prescribed medications for depression and anxiety?
A lot of people have expressed this concern after an executive order from the White House announced the creation of a “Make America Healthy Again” Commission, headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump’s order included a directive to “assess the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of” drugs including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
Kennedy has characterized SSRIs, a class of drugs often used to treat depression and anxiety, as highly addictive, potentially dangerous and overprescribed.
Some commonly prescribed SSRIs include Prozac (fluoxetine), Celexa (citalopram), Zoloft (sertraline) and Lexapro (escitalopram).
The efficacy of these drugs, and their benefits versus risks, are hotly debated topics, but there is no denying their prevalence — especially among women, who are treated for depression at nearly twice the rate of men in the U.S.
Some new market research data shows that in the Seattle area, there is a remarkably high use of antidepressants and antianxiety medication among young women.
According to survey data from market research firm Nielsen, 33% of women 18 to 35 in the Seattle market area — a projected 205,000 young women — used medication to combat depression or anxiety in the past 12 months. Among men in the same age group in the Seattle area, only around 15% — a projected 102,000 young men — had used these medications.
Overall, nearly 19% of adults in our market — around 847,000 people — used medication for depression or anxiety, which was a little higher than the national average of around 17%.
The gender gap in the use of these medications is evident across all adult age groups. Among Seattle-area women, 25% had used these drugs, compared with 12% of men.
The surveys were conducted from August 2023 to August 2024. The Seattle market area includes most of Western Washington and has an adult population of about 4.5 million. Nielsen surveyed nearly 3,900 people in the Seattle market for the new data release.
Among the 50 largest market areas, Seattle had the seventh-highest share of young women who used medication for depression or anxiety. Salt Lake City was No. 1, at 41%, followed by Kansas City at 37% and Boston at 36%.
The lowest numbers were in markets located in the Sunbelt, such as San Antonio, Dallas and Los Angeles, where the rate of use for these drugs among young women was between 10% and 15%.
Demographics almost certainly play a role here. Research has shown a significantly higher use of antidepressants among white people than among Black, Asian or Hispanic people.
This is true for men and women, but the gap is even more pronounced among women.
Seattle and many of the other places with the highest share of young women who have used medications for depression and anxiety are also areas with a higher percentage of white people than the places at the other end of the list.
The use of these medications nationally has spiked since 2020, surely a sign the pandemic took a toll on the mental health of many Americans. The increase was most dramatic among young adults.
Nielsen data shows a striking increase in the use of these medications among young Seattle-area women since the pandemic started. In surveys conducted between 2018 and 2019, just 18% of women 18 to 34 here — a projected 110,000 women — had used antidepressants or antianxiety medication in the past 12 months.
Nationally, 23.5% of young women used medications to treat depression or anxiety compared with 14% of young men.
Gene Balk / FYI Guy: gbalk@seattletimes.com.
