Some thoughts on stopping medications from MIA Blogger Monica Cassani at her website, Beyond Meds. In this piece, Monica quotes a statement by MIA Blogger Stuart Shipko, MD, who says, “I used to feel that anyone on the SSRIs or atypical antipsychotics who is no longer symptomatic would be better off stopping the drugs. Now I am not so sure. The problems unleashed when slowly tapering drugs can be severe and difficult or impossible to reverse. Even if patients get past the withdrawal symptoms, within the year these ‘withdrawal’ symptoms may recur – or worse.If ever there was a need for research on a subject, this is the topic. Absent such research, it is easy to recommend against starting the drugs, but for people who are on the drugs for a number of years, it is difficult to compare the risks and benefits of stopping.”
Monica reflects on Stuart’s perspective about whether or not it’s the right decision to come off meds, saying, “People need to be told the truth so that if they choose medications they know what the risks are. None of us who’ve ended up sick were able to make such an informed choice. We in fact were often implicitly, if not explicitly coerced, while being told that not taking medications was in fact much more dangerous. That’s just not true for a very large percentage of folks taking these drugs.” And she offers helpful links so that a person can get better informed about what these drugs are, and what happens when someone chooses to come off of them.
Read her piece here.