Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act of 2025

This legislation mandates the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to engage the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine within 90 days of enactment. The National Academies will conduct an independent review of all suicides, violent deaths, and accidental deaths among veterans who received Department of Veterans Affairs care during the five-year period preceding the bill's enactment. The comprehensive review will examine various factors, including the total number of such deaths, demographic information, and a detailed analysis of prescribed medications , particularly those with black box warnings, off-label use, psychotropic effects, or suicidal ideation warnings. It will also investigate medical diagnoses from VA physicians that led to these prescriptions, focusing on conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, and other anxiety and depressive disorders. The review will assess instances of concurrent medication use and the utilization of non-medication first-line treatments. Furthermore, the review will scrutinize the Department's clinical practice guidelines for prescribing medications, its systematic measurement of pain scores, and efforts to maintain appropriate mental health staffing levels , including addressing impediments to hiring counselors and therapists. It will identify VA medical facilities with markedly high prescription and suicide rates and analyze collaboration with State Medicaid agencies and prescription drug monitoring programs to prevent overprescription. Finally, the National Academies will assess patterns, determine best practices for collecting and sharing veteran death certificate data, and provide recommendations to enhance veteran safety and well-being.