DATE: July 25, 2025 at 04:30PM
SOURCE: Association of Health Care Journalists: MENTAL HEALTH

TITLE: How a reporter got the scoop on a startup helping patients taper off antidepressants

URL: healthjournalism.org/blog/2025…

WIRED senior writer Kate Knibbs said she ignores 99.9% of pitches from PR companies that she receives by email. But an email about the startup company Outro Health that is working to help patients taper off antidepressant medications without experiencing debilitating side effects caught her attention.

The company’s mission resonated with Knibbs, who knows several people who have experienced difficulty tapering off a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Her story, “Uber for Getting Off Antidepressants’ Launches in the US,” describes the model in which patients are paired with an independent clinician who creates a customized tapering schedule. Tapering is performed at a very slow rate, so the company works with compounding pharmacies that produce custom versions of generic antidepressants in small doses not available commercially. The service is available in seven states.

In this “How I Did It,” Knibbs discusses the background of the story and offers advice for covering health care startup companies.

Responses have been lightly edited for brevity.

What inspired you to pursue this story?

I thought the concept of the startup was very provocative. The way they [the company] were describing it, I thought it sounded very MAHA-inflected. [Initially] I was skeptical, and I did not think it sounded like a good idea, so I just wanted to know more. I’m very interested in how telehealth is changing mental health care. I’m also interested in how the internet is changing how we are diagnosed with mental conditions more broadly, and the way that people are forming communities and identities around mental health online. This story hit on a lot of those issues.

How did you reach the company’s founders for interviews — through the publicist?

Yes, the founders were open to talking, which was great. We spent hours on Zoom. In talking to them, I realized that I had a more nuanced story on my hands. Mark Horowitz, the academic psychiatrist behind the science fueling this startup, I found to be very sincere. He made me think about the story a little differently because he was so adamant that he is a man of science and not aligned with the [Make America Healthy Again] movement, and doesn’t want to demonize people who need these medications or doctors who are prescribing these medications. He was really focused on reforming the prescription processes for people who want to get off the medications.

How did you find additional experts on tapering to interview?

That was mainly me spending some time looking at what academic research had been done on tapering, and then identifying people who might be willing to speak to me who had nothing to do with the startup. Because Horowitz has actually done a lot of the highest-profile academic research into tapering, I was canceling out anything that he had been involved with and looking at what other materials were available, and then just calling and emailing the authors of those papers.

What was important to you in telling this story?

I really wanted to capture the complexity of launching this kind of service right now. I was concerned about accidentally contributing to any conversations that demonize medications. I was interested in writing about it because I truly did think that it was going to fulfill a need that people had in managing their mental health care. I [also] wanted to make sure that I emphasized that it actually does have a lot in common with other startups that sell prescription drugs online, because as much as its focus is on deprescribing, in reality, it is connecting people with clinicians who are going to prescribe smaller doses of the medications that they’ve been on. It’s still a company in which someone is talking to a clinician and getting a prescription medication. And it’s using the subscription service model.

What kind of feedback have you received about this story?

There was a lot of feedback on social media from people who read the headline but not the story. One of the founders described it as Uber for getting off antidepressants, which we thought was very catchy. But it also did the service a disservice, because it didn’t capture the nuances and, frankly, an Uber for getting off antidepressants sounds like not a good idea. A lot of people just read the headline and assumed this was an anti-psychiatry startup. So there was a lot of conversation generated about that.

I was heartened to see conversations happening where the people who had read the article would pull quotes and say, “Well, no, actually this isn’t an anti-psychiatry startup.” It definitely provoked a response, I think because so many people take antidepressants and so many people know someone who’s taken antidepressants. It’s a mainstream part of life these days, and so it resonated. This is a moment where antidepressants are being vilified by the Trump Administration and the MAHA movement in a terrifying way, so I think a lot of people just have their hackles up about it.

What do you hope that readers get out of the story?

I think that everyone should pay attention to this movement toward direct-to-consumer prescription services. I think it’s going to be an increasingly large part of the American medical system moving forward, so we should all be aware of the different types of services offered, their strengths and weaknesses, and maybe examine them, keeping in mind that perhaps there are other ways that we could be organizing our health care system that aren’t so reliant on independent boutique startups.

Do you have advice for our members on how to cover startups?

I definitely think it’s important to stay skeptical and always consult outside sources versus just relying on what the startups tell you. This story in particular, for me, was a lesson in not dismissing an idea out of hand. When I heard about it, I thought it was a terrible idea, and it wasn’t until I did more reporting that I came away with a much more nuanced take on what the startup was offering.

The post How a reporter got the scoop on a startup helping patients taper off antidepressants appeared first on Association of Health Care Journalists.

URL: healthjournalism.org/blog/2025…

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