U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that he has directed the National Institutes of Health to launch studies examining whether selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and other psychiatric or hormone treatments contribute to suicidal or violent behavior, including mass shootings. Kennedy noted that several of these medications carry “black-box” warnings for suicidal and homicidal ideation but have not been systematically evaluated for possible links to violence because of patient-privacy constraints. The move follows Wednesday’s attack at Annunciation Catholic School and Church in Minneapolis, where Robin Westman, a 23-year-old transgender former student, opened fire during a morning Mass, killing two children, ages 8 and 10, and wounding 17 other people before taking his own life. Federal investigators are treating the assault as domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. Kennedy described the surge in mass shootings as a public-health emergency and said the United States, “the most over-medicated nation in the world,” must investigate every potential factor. He added that HHS would use its authority to obtain anonymized clinical data for the NIH studies and would share findings with Congress and the public.