Veterans who put their lives on the line for our country should never surrender control over their own health. Informed consent means more than being handed a prescription. It means understanding the risks, benefits, side effects, and alternatives before deciding whether a treatment is right for you.
The Written Informed Consent Act, S.3314/H.R.4837, would strengthen that protection for veterans receiving care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The legislation would expand the VA’s written informed-consent requirements beyond long-term opioid therapy to five additional categories of medications: antipsychotics, stimulants, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and narcotics. Before prescribing one of these medications, the legislation would require a signed consent form stating that the veteran has been informed of the known side effects.
When he introduced the Senate bill, Senator Tim Sheehy described it as “a commonsense step toward empowering veterans to make informed decisions about their own medical care.” He added that veterans who defended our freedoms deserve “the information, support, and care they need to thrive and prosper when they return home.”
That information matters because these medications can provide important benefits, but they can also carry serious risks:
- Antipsychotics: These medications can cause serious adverse effects including movement disorders, significant metabolic changes, and potentially fatal conditions.
- Stimulants: Prescription stimulants carry risks including misuse, abuse, addiction, cardiovascular complications, and overdose.
- Antidepressants: In addition to the FDA boxed warning regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviors in younger patients, antidepressants can pose significant risks for older adults, including low blood sodium, falls and fractures, bleeding, and interactions with other medications.
- Anxiolytics: Benzodiazepines, a widely used class of anti-anxiety drugs, can cause abuse, addiction, physical dependence, behavioral and mood changes, and potentially dangerous withdrawal reactions, including seizures.
- Narcotics: Opioid narcotics carry serious risks including addiction, misuse, overdose, and potentially fatal respiratory depression.
These risks do not mean that these medications should never be used. They mean patients deserve to understand what they are agreeing to before they take them. Written informed consent creates an opportunity for veterans (and their families) to understand risks, ask questions, discuss alternatives, and make treatment decisions based on their own circumstances and values.
The legislation also comes amid broader concerns about the number of medications being prescribed within the VA system. In his announcement of the bill, Senator Sheehy cited data indicating that the average veteran using VA health care receives nearly 30 prescriptions per year and that more than 64% receive at least one duplicative prescription. His office argues that expanding written informed consent can give veterans another safeguard against unnecessary or inappropriate prescribing.
The VA already uses written informed consent for long-term opioid treatment. Sheehy’s office points to a substantial decline in opioid prescribing as evidence that informed-consent requirements can coexist with treatment: by 2023, the number of veterans prescribed opioids was 67% lower than in 2012.
The VA updated their policy, but Congress still has a role.
On September 28, 2026, the VA announced that it is strengthening informed-consent requirements for the same general categories of psychotropic medications addressed by the legislation: antipsychotics, stimulants, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and opioids. VA Secretary Doug Collins said, “America’s Veterans should get as much information as possible as they are deciding what treatment is best for them.”
Beginning in 2027, the VA plans to require standardized patient education for veterans receiving psychotropic medications and documented conversations covering the medication’s risks, side effects, benefits, alternatives, and how to safely discontinue it. The VA will also require patient education and signature consent before concurrently prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines and before prescribing an antidepressant to a veteran younger than 30.
That is significant progress, but it does not go as far as the Written Informed Consent Act.
Under the VA’s newly announced policy, some psychotropic medications will continue to require only oral consent. Signature consent is specifically required in the circumstances described above. By contrast, the Written Informed Consent Act would extend the VA’s written-consent framework across the five medication categories named in the legislation.
There is another important distinction: VA guidance is administrative policy; the Written Informed Consent Act would put the requirement in federal law. The VA has already acknowledged the importance of strengthening informed consent and has begun moving in that direction. Congress now has the opportunity to make those protections extend further and have the permanence of federal law.
Senator Sheehy summarized the principle behind the legislation when it was introduced: “It’s our job in D.C. to ensure [veterans] have the information, support, and care they need.”
The Written Informed Consent Act has support from numerous veterans organizations, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, Fleet Reserve Association, and others.
Veterans defended our freedoms. They deserve meaningful information and a voice when decisions are made about their own medical care. The VA has taken an important step. Now Congress can finish the job by making written informed consent a lasting protection for veterans.