The following article addresses the States place in the neoliberal conception of mental health on the basis of the pharmaceutical market's predominance. For that purpose, the extension of outpatient care and the increase of psychiatric drug prescriptions as key elements of mental health public policies in Chile. In addition, the role of the neoliberal state on the basis of transferring public resources to the private sector is examined, considering the amounts of bids and laboratories involved in public expenditure of psychiatric drugs during the period of 2011-2017. It is concluded that the massive use of psychiatric drugs is the State's preferred response for mental health care and the obtaining of economic benefits with public resources on the part of the pharmaceutical industry, must be contested using a critical and alternative analysis to neoliberalism.