Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

Guy, 2020 The 'patient voice': patients who experience antidepressant withdrawal symptoms....


arbor

Recommended Posts

  • Moderator Emeritus

Ther Adv Psychopharmacol

2020 Nov 9;10:2045125320967183.

The 'patient voice': patients who experience antidepressant withdrawal symptoms are often dismissed, or misdiagnosed with relapse, or a new medical condition

Free full text DOI: 10.1177/2045125320967183

Free PMC article 

 

Abstract

 

Background: Stopping antidepressants commonly causes withdrawal symptoms, which can be severe and long-lasting. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance has been recently updated to reflect this; however, for many years withdrawal (discontinuation) symptoms were characterised as 'usually mild and self-limiting over a week'. Consequently, withdrawal symptoms might have been misdiagnosed as relapse of an underlying condition, or new onset of another medical illness, but this has never been studied.

Method: This paper outlines the themes emerging from 158 respondents to an open invitation to describe the experience of prescribed psychotropic medication withdrawal for petitions sent to British parliaments. The accounts include polypharmacy (mostly antidepressants and benzodiazepines) but we focus on antidepressants because of the relative lack of awareness about their withdrawal effects compared with benzodiazepines. Mixed method analysis was used, including a 'lean thinking' approach to evaluate common failure points.

Results: The themes identified include: a lack of information given to patients about the risk of antidepressant withdrawal; doctors failing to recognise the symptoms of withdrawal; doctors being poorly informed about the best method of tapering prescribed medications; patients being diagnosed with relapse of the underlying condition or medical illnesses other than withdrawal; patients seeking advice outside of mainstream healthcare, including from online forums; and significant effects on functioning for those experiencing withdrawal.

Discussion: Several points for improvement emerge: the need for updating of guidelines to help prescribers recognise antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and to improve informed consent processes; greater availability of non-pharmacological options for managing distress; greater availability of best practice for tapering medications such as antidepressants; and the vital importance of patient feedback. Although the patients captured in this analysis might represent medication withdrawal experiences that are more severe than average, they highlight the current inadequacy of health care systems to recognise and manage prescribed drug withdrawal, and patient feedback in general.

Keywords: antidepressant; benzodiazepines; discontinuation; informed consent; lean thinking; patient feedback; prescribed drug dependence; withdrawal.

© The Author(s), 2020.

 

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: Anne Guy is a psychotherapist and the co-ordinator for the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. Marion Brown is the originator of the Scottish Petition. Stevie Lewis is the originator of the Welsh Petition.

Edited by Altostrata
Journals format

Zoloft: 1995 - 2015

Prozac: 2015 - 2018 (tapered from 40mg x day on July 31 to 30mg on August 31 to 20mg on September 31 to 10mg October 31 to 0mg on  December 15, 2018

Gabapentin: 2016 to 2019  (tapered from 300mg x day to 150mg on August 31, 2019 to 75mg on September 15 to 50mg on September 31 to 25ishmg on October 15 to 0mg on December 1, 2019

Enalapril: 2010 - 2019

Lipitor: 2017 -2017

Metformin: 2000 - 2020

Liothyronine: 2007 - 2019

Levothyroxine: 2000 - 2022

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy