Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy and health advocate Calley Means discussed what they described as a growing over-medicalization crisis among American teenagers, raising questions about whether widespread use of psychotropic drugs and other medications could be contributing to violent behavior.

Campos-Duffy began the conversation by referencing recent violent incidents that have drawn national attention.

“That is the trans shooters. They keep making these headlines. We just saw it this week in Rhode Island, where a trans shot up a high school hockey game. What’s making them so trigger happy? Callie, and is RFK Jr looking into it? Is it the SSRIs, the psychotropic drugs? What are trans people taking and ingesting into their body with hormones and testosterone? Could this be making them more violent? Because we can’t ignore these numbers,” Campos-Duffy said.

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Her comments centered on whether the combination of hormone treatments and psychiatric medications might be influencing behavior, and whether federal health officials are examining the issue more closely.

Means responded by pointing to remarks made when President Trump swore in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Rachel, the moment President Trump swore in secretary, Kennedy, he said, I want you to address the over medicalization crisis among teens,” Means said.

Means then cited data from the Department of Health and Human Services to illustrate what she described as an unprecedented level of prescription drug use among minors.

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“I just pulled some statistics from HHS, 30% of teens in the United States are on a daily medication,” she said.

She continued by outlining long-term increases in specific categories of drugs.

“Teen antidepressants, psychoactive drug has gone up 14,000% since 1987 antipsychotic medications among kids up 800% since 1995 and stimulant prescriptions, it’s Adderall, one molecule away from Crystal Meth, a very powerful drug, it’s up 250% dose prescription since 1995,” Means said.

Means argued that medication trends are occurring alongside broader health concerns tied to diet.

“We are poisoning our kids with Ultra processed food, and then we are drugging them at rates unseen in human history,” she said.

She suggested that dismissing any connection between these trends and other societal issues would be shortsighted.

“And to think that this does not have a link to other issues downstream of that would be crazy, and we’re investigating it heavily, and we’re taking action,” Means said.

Campos-Duffy said that in the aftermath of high-profile shootings, public discussion often focuses on firearms rather than on the role of medications.

“That would be one of the most incredible things that we could see happen,” she said. “All of us have been asking about this.”

“Every time one of these things happen, people go guns, guns, guns,” Campos-Duffy continued.

“No one wants to talk about the drugs and how medicalized and full of medication so many of our kids are, and how that there’s a big profit behind it as well.”

She concluded by thanking Means for pursuing the issue.

“Thank you for looking into this, Calley.”

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