Tag: withdrawal

Growing rates of long-term psychiatric drug prescriptions and documented issues with withdrawal demonstrate a need for safe deprescribing practices.

New guidance for primary care doctors in the UK on antidepressant discontinuation acknowledges severe and long-lasting withdrawal symptoms.

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

In online communities, patients learn their strange symptoms may be due to the medications they are taking, and are offered solutions that provide hope.

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

New research reveals that patients are often not given fully informed consent before being prescribed antipsychotics.

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

Researchers argue that common study methods for psychiatric drugs may inadvertently minimize withdrawal effects and inflate drug efficacy.

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

A meta-analysis published last month showed that psychotherapy has an enduring effect on depression—in contrast to depression pills.

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.

A rapid withdrawal can be very dangerous and even deadly. You do not solve the problem by firing those who point this out, but that happened to me.

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

The effects of alcohol—both positive and negative—have a lot to teach us about the biomedical view of psychiatric diagnoses and the drugs prescribed to treat them.

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.

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.

I watched my son’s life change almost overnight. He developed akathisia from antidepressants, taken as prescribed for just a few weeks for garden-variety anxiety.

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.

Researchers question the long-term use of antipsychotics and suggest increased research and investment in psychosocial interventions.

Peter Gøtzsche: The MIND organization in Denmark and the psychiatric guild suppressed information regarding the discontinuation of psychiatric drugs.