3 ms·

Totally, I'm sure many people have no issues :-) Here's a recent Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/17/i-stopped-sleeping-the-some

Totally, I'm sure many people have no issues :-) Here's a recent Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/17/i-stopped-sleeping-the-sometimes-difficult-path-off-antidepressants https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/17/i-stopped-sl... From the article: > Horowitz experienced a prolonged antidepressant withdrawal in 2015 that caused intense panic attacks and, he says, even left him contemplating suicide. This personal experience has led the training psychiatrist to become an advocate for reforming antidepressant deprescribing. > In June 2022 the UK health regulator, Nice, amended its guidance on how to support people coming off antidepressants, acknowledging the severity and length of withdrawal symptoms can vary. Nice encourages slow, staggered tapering over many months, if needed. > In Australia, the RANZCP guidelines continue to recommend tapering by halving and quartering the lowest dose over about two to six weeks, and acknowledged that while slower tapering might sometimes be needed, it mostly isn’t possible in Australia “as current preparations of antidepressants do not allow for the dose to be reduced by such small decrements”. There are well documented side effects of stopping SSRI usage that are not related to the original symptoms that the drug is prescribed to treat. But yes, we all have different experiences, and there are many types of SSRIs. :-)

petesergeant 3y ago
Also from your article: > psychiatrist and former RANZCP president, Prof Malcolm Hopwood, says most people who taper off a standard antidepressant dose will be able to do so without major withdrawal symptoms ... "There’s a _small_ group who really experience significant withdrawal symptoms that they really find very difficult to manage" Discontinuation symptoms are a real risk, but people who could really benefit from these drugs absolutely shouldn't be put off by a categorization of these symptoms as being typical.
- kawhah 3y ago
  That guy's job is pushing psychiatric medicine and techniques on society though, right?
  - InSteady 3y ago
    The phrasing here definitely makes you wonder how big is the group that experiences moderate side effects that are moderately unpleasant and moderately difficult to manage, and what do these qualifying terms actually mean in terms of severity and overall negative impact on a patient? A small group that has severe side effects and finds them very difficult to manage is kind of a big deal in a class of drugs that actually have small effect size in the medical literature.

petesergeant 3y ago

Also from your article: > psychiatrist and former RANZCP president, Prof Malcolm Hopwood, says most people who taper off a standard antidepressant dose will be able to do so without major withdrawal symptoms ... "There’s a _small_ group who really experience significant withdrawal symptoms that they really find very difficult to manage" Discontinuation symptoms are a real risk, but people who could really benefit from these drugs absolutely shouldn't be put off by a categorization of these symptoms as being typical.

kawhah 3y ago
That guy's job is pushing psychiatric medicine and techniques on society though, right?
- InSteady 3y ago
  The phrasing here definitely makes you wonder how big is the group that experiences moderate side effects that are moderately unpleasant and moderately difficult to manage, and what do these qualifying terms actually mean in terms of severity and overall negative impact on a patient? A small group that has severe side effects and finds them very difficult to manage is kind of a big deal in a class of drugs that actually have small effect size in the medical literature.