15% of patients experience antidepressant discontinuation symptoms, most of which are mild.

Add a topic to an email alert Get emails when new articles are published Enter your email address to receive emails when new articles are published. . " data-actionsubscribe> Subscribe Your request could not be processed. Please try again later. If the problem persists, customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Highlights: The incidence of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms was 0.31 for antidepressants and 0.17 for placebo. Imipramine, paroxetine, desvenlafaxine, or venlafaxine produced the most severe symptoms. A study published in 2010 found that one in three people who stopped taking an antidepressant and one in six who stopped taking a placebo experienced discontinuation symptoms. The Lancet Psychiatry. Taking into account non-specific effects, the researchers estimated that 15% of patients who stop taking antidepressants, or 1 in 6 to 7, will experience withdrawal symptoms, and 1 in 35 will experience serious symptoms. Data were taken from Henssler J et al. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2024:doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(24)00133-0. "Our analysis shows that on average, one in three Discontinuation of antidepressant treatment", Jonathan Hensler, MD "However, only half of the symptoms can actually be attributed to the medication," said the head of the evidence-based mental health working group at the department of psychiatry and psychotherapy at Charité University Medical School Berlin in a related press release. Henssler and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 79 studies that evaluated discontinuation of antidepressants or placebo. These studies included 21,002 patients (72% women, mean age 45 years, range 19.6–64.5 years), of whom 16,532 discontinued antidepressants and 4,470 discontinued placebo. The incidence rate (IR) of any antidepressant discontinuation symptoms after discontinuation of an antidepressant was 0.31 (95% CI, 0.27-0.35) compared with 0.17 (95% CI, 0.14-0.21) after discontinuation of placebo. Some medications, such as imipramine (IR 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.66) and desvenlafaxine or venlafaxine (IR 0.4; 95% CI, 0.35-0.45), were associated with a higher incidence of symptoms, whereas fluoxetine (IR 0.15; 95% CI, 0.01-0.8) and sertraline (IR 0.18; 95% CI, 0.08-0.35) were associated with the lowest incidence of discontinuation symptoms. The incidence of serious antidepressant withdrawal symptoms was 0.028 (95% CI, 0.014-0.057) for antidepressants and 0.006 (95% CI, 0.002-0.013) for placebo. The drugs with the highest incidence of serious antidepressant withdrawal symptoms were imipramine (IR 0.123; 95% CI, 0.015-0.577), paroxetine (IR 0.053; 0.025-0.107), and desvenlafaxine or venlafaxine (IR 0.056; 95% CI, 0.002-0.678). "Taking into account the effects of non-specific symptoms and expectations, one in six to seven people How Antidepressants Actually Work"These are mostly mild. The vast majority of affected people are able to discontinue their antidepressants without experiencing any associated symptoms, and therefore in most cases there is no need to discontinue the medication for long periods or gradually," Henssler said in the release. References: Add a topic to an email alert Get emails when new articles are published Enter your email address to receive emails when new articles are published. . " data-actionsubscribe> Subscribe Your request could not be processed. Please try again later. If the problem persists, customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20240613/15-of-patients-experience-antidepressant-discontinuation-symptoms-which-are-mostly-mild The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article