MIA Articles about Psychiatric Drugs and Withdrawal

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Linked to Life-Altering Consequences, New Study Shows

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A new study reveals that withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants can last years, disrupting lives and relationships.

Hyperbolic Tapering off Antidepressants Limits Withdrawal

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New research by Jim van Os and Peter Groot finds that using hyperbolic tapering to discontinue antidepressants reduces withdrawal effects.
Closeup of pills in hand, a magnifying glass

Psychiatric Drugs “A Crude Form of Chemical Restraint”

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Mental health nursing has a key role to play in helping people discontinue the drugs, writes Timothy Wand.
A photo of David Taylor on the left and Mark Horowitz on the right

The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines: An Interview with David Taylor and Mark Horowitz

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Tapering should be tailored and adjusted to the patient, slowed and more hyperbolic in people who have severe and longstanding reactions.

Playing the Odds: Antidepressant ‘Withdrawal’ and the Problem of Informed Consent

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If I thought that it was possible, I would have opened a string of clinics all over the country to help get people off of antidepressants.  Unfortunately, the problems that sometimes occur when people try to stop an SSRI antidepressant are much more severe and long-lasting than the medical profession acknowledges, and there is no antidote to these problems. The truth is, giving people information about taking antidepressants is like giving information to people who are enroute to a casino; they go because they hear that some people win (at least for a time), but the losers are the ones who ultimately pay for it all — and the odds are not in their favor.

Peer-Support Groups Were Right, Guidelines Were Wrong: Dr. Mark Horowitz on Tapering Off Antidepressants

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In an interview with MIA, Dr. Horowitz discusses his recent article on why tapering off antidepressants can take months or even years.

How to Avoid Severe SSRI Withdrawal Symptoms?

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After long-term use, most people are going to have serious symptoms when stopping SSRIs. Many people are going to have transient, mild to moderate difficulty and some are going to end up falling down the akathisia rabbit hole. That is a long, difficult drop.

Stopping SSRI Antidepressants Can Cause Long, Intense Withdrawal Problems

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In the first systematic review of withdrawal problems that patients experience when trying to get off SSRI antidepressant medications, researchers found that withdrawing from SSRIs was comparable to trying to quit addictive benzodiazepines.

Things Your Doctor Should Tell You About Antidepressants

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The conventional wisdom is that antidepressant medications are effective and safe. However, the scientific literature shows that the conventional wisdom is flawed. While all prescription medications have side effects, antidepressant medications appear to do more harm than good as treatments for depression.

How to Distinguish Antidepressant Withdrawal from Relapse

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

The New Yorker Peers into the Psychiatric Abyss… And Loses Its Nerve

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The New Yorker's story on Laura Delano and psychiatric drug withdrawal is a glass-half-full story: It addresses a problem in psychiatry and yet hides the deeper story to be told. A story of how her recovery resulted from seeing herself within a counter-narrative that tells of the harm that psychiatry can do.

Listening to the Patient Voice: The Antidepressant Withdrawal Experience

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Patient advocates join with researchers and service users to present first-hand experiences of antidepressant withdrawal.

Now Antidepressant-Induced Chronic Depression Has a Name: Tardive Dysphoria

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Three recently published papers, along with a report by a Minnesota group on health outcomes in that state, provide new reason to mull over...

Reframing Antipsychotic Discontinuation: A Psychiatrist’s Personal and Professional Call for Epistemic Justice

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A psychiatrist with lived experience advocates for a more humane, collaborative approach to antipsychotic discontinuation that respects diverse ways of knowing.

Harrow + Wunderink + Open Dialogue = An Evidence-based Mandate for A New Standard...

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In the wake of the new study by Dutch researcher Lex Wunderink, it is time for psychiatry to do the right thing and acknowledge that, if it wants to do best by its patients, it must change its protocols for using antipsychotics. The current standard of care, which—in practice—involves continual use of antipsychotics for all patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, clearly reduces the opportunity for long-term functional recovery.

Psychiatrists Argue For More Attention to Iatrogenic Harms

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Psychiatrists argue that current practice fails to account for the interaction of biological, psychosocial and iatrogenic factors.
hand reaching out from pile of pills

The Review on Antidepressant Withdrawal That Cochrane Won’t Publish

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Peter Gøtzsche and Anders Sørensen on trying to get a review of methods for safe antidepressant withdrawal published in Cochrane: "They sent us on a mission that was impossible to accomplish" to "protect the psychiatric guild."

Tapering Strips Help People Discontinue Antidepressants

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A new study by Peter Groot and Jim van Os has found that tapering strips help people successfully discontinue antidepressant medications.

Antidepressant Withdrawal Commonly Misdiagnosed as “Mental Illness”

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A new study reveals that more than two-thirds of patients experiencing antidepressant withdrawal were misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders.

Long-term Use of Lithium Can Cause Kidney Failure

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A third of patients who have taken the common psychiatric medication lithium for over ten years have developed "chronic renal failure" from the drug.

Wunderink: Antipsychotics Can Be Tapered Safely Without Increasing Relapse Risk

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Tapering antipsychotics slowly and with supported decision-making may improve care for patients with psychosis.

Researchers Document Protracted Withdrawal from Antidepressants

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Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome characterized by long-term adverse experiences after coming off of antidepressants.
Illustration of pills, a brain, and a person with scribbles indicating displeasure

A Different Psychiatry Is Needed for Discontinuing Antidepressants

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

Tapered Antipsychotic Withdrawal Mitigates Risk of Psychotic Symptoms

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

Study of Online Antidepressant Forums Reveals Long Lasting Withdrawal Effects

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Effects of discontinuing SSRIs and SNRIs reported on an online forum indicate significant and long-lasting withdrawal symptoms.