Withdrawal Page

A new study promotes the use of a standardized approach to antidepressant tapering.

A new literature review reinforces the need to “down-titrate” or taper antidepressants, especially drugs like Celexa and Paxil.

Researchers suggest that antidepressant withdrawal can be a possible precipitant of suicide.

The problems related to the use of antidepressants cannot be solved by an oversimplified psychiatry brainwashed by the pharmaceutical industry.

A new study reveals many benzodiazepine users are misinformed about the risks of withdrawal and experience devastating consequences.

Mark Horowitz and David Taylor provide advice on how to tell the difference between antidepressant withdrawal and depression relapse.

New research examines service user attitudes on discontinuing and reducing antipsychotic drugs.

A review of clinical practice guidelines for antidepressant discontinuation from across the English-speaking world reveals major pitfalls.

Supportive patient-practitioner relationships are crucial to the successful discontinuation of psychiatric medication.

Current long-term users of benzodiazepines and Z-drugs identify barriers and facilitators for discontinuation.

Leading researchers point out that a new antidepressant study in NEJM failed to account for withdrawal symptoms, casting doubt on the results.

New guidance on how to taper and discontinue from psychiatric drugs from leading researchers Mark Horowitz and David Taylor.

Researchers developed a rating scale to better assess service users’ experiences tapering antidepressant and/or antipsychotic medication.

Research suggests that slowly tapering off an antipsychotic reduces the risk of withdrawal psychosis compared to abrupt discontinuation.

A new study investigates how antidepressant withdrawal effects often get confounded with depression relapse in clinical trials.

Jim van Os and Peter Groot discuss their paper: “Successful Use of Tapering Strips for Hyperbolic Reduction of Antidepressant Dose: A Cohort Study” published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.

A new article in Lancet Psychiatry debunks past studies claiming that those on low doses of antipsychotics are more likely to relapse.

A researcher and service user Stevie Lewis recounts her own experience with antidepressant withdrawal and what she wishes her doctors knew.

Peter Gøtzsche gives advice on what withdrawal symptoms may look like and explains the dangers of—and alternatives to—forced treatment.

Withdraw from psychiatric drugs at your own speed—according to what you feel. Don’t reduce again before you feel stabilised on the previous dose.

Psychiatrists have made hundreds of millions of people dependent on psychiatric drugs and yet have done virtually nothing to find out how to help the patients come off them again.

“Short and simple psychological programs can prevent people from relapsing when they stop their antidepressants.”

Very few doctors know anything about withdrawal and make horrible mistakes. If they taper at all, they do it far too quickly because the few guidelines that exist recommend far too quick tapering.

Anti-stigma campaigns reinforce a belief that people with mental health issues must have treatment and thus, push discussion of withdrawal and negative aspects of psychiatric drugs into anonymous spaces.

Researchers find a lack of current literature on safe, effective ways to manage antidepressant withdrawal and make suggestions for future research.