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Antidepressant Tapering Survey - **researchers need your help please** (Dr Mark Horowitz, Prof Joanna Moncrieff, Prof John Read, Dr Ed White)


Caspur

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Hello Everyone,

 

RESEARCH ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS WITHDRAWAL AND TAPERING – CALL FOR FORUM MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE

 

We invite you to participate in this research project which has been designed to gather your experiences of antidepressant withdrawal and tapering, especially under the guidance of peer support forums such as this one.

 

The project is being runs by Professors John Read and Joanna Moncrieff, Dr Mark Horowitz and Dr Ed White. The objective is to understand how antidepressant withdrawal has impacted you and how peer support groups have helped you to safely taper or start to reduce your antidepressant use.  We also want to get your views on how the medical system could better have helped you in this process and what aspects would be most important to include in a service designed to help people come off their antidepressant. There is also the option for you to provide more general feedback on your experiences.

 

You can participate by anonymously completing the survey in the link below. It will take 30-45 minutes of your time to complete. There is also an opportunity to help researchers by providing your tapering data and also to participate in an interview with researchers about your experiences if you would like to do so. Please read the information at the beginning of the survey for more details.

 

Please note: at present the researchers only want responses from those tapering antidepressants.

 

Tapering Survey Link

Thank you for your participation

2011 - started Venlafaxine (again) at 75mg Raised to 150 mg at some point - unsure of dates. Reduced back down to 75 mg. Doctor advised this would be a lifetime, maintenance dose

2017 - Side effects now intolerable. Started taper from June 15th - 5% dose reduction steps (two 12 hourly doses).

2017 - October 20th - took last dose of Venlafaxine - 4 mg. Debilitating symptoms followed.

2017/18 - diazepam - 8mg/day for 1 month - 7 week taper Feb 2018

2017/18 - duloxetine - max 90mg - now stopped

2018 - Feb 25mg quetiapine, increased to 50mg.

2018 - March/April - increased venlafaxine slowly (10mg steps) to 75 mg/day. Recovery from withdrawal followed.

2018 - July 13 - stopped quetiapine after 2 month taper. Late July - had to reinstate quetiapine due to intolerable withdrawal. Now tapering from 25mg

2019 - June - stopped quetiapine after 10 month taper. Mild insomnia only symptom.

2021 - June - venlafaxine approx 6.0 mg see Taper history details

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  • Altostrata pinned this topic

Hello @Caspur,

 

thank you very much for this very important message! It should be more prominent here on SA in my opinion, because they work to inform not only the medical system

of Great Britain, but also other medical system around the globe! Maybe the staff here can make it more prominent somehow, except pinning it @Altostrata?

 

I think it goes down a bit in this subforum.

 

It has been already posted and translated in the german taper forum (ADFD.org, founded 2003, over 10.000 accounts) and we will try to enrouage people to participate in this survey!

 

Greetings

 

Nomansland

2022 IMPORTANT WITHDRAWAL SURVEY, PLEASE PARTICIPATE: https://uelpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AR9IsQ61jsiXBk

 

non-native speaker of english

2020: 3-March -> started Mirtazapine 15mg;

3-March to 6-April -> approx. cutting to 0 mg; 6-April to 20-April -> ~ 7,5 mg; 21-April to 31-April -> 15 mg; 1-May to 13-May -> ~ 10 mg (approx.); 15-May to 19-July -> 15 mg (psychosomatic clinic) 19-July -> started taper (scale and file) 14 mg (-6,6%); 08-August -> 12 mg (-14,3 %); 27-August -> 10 mg (-16,6 %); 15-September -> 8 mg (-20 %, bad idea, heavy WD); 23-September -> 10.2 mg (+20 %, 102 mgpw)

2021: 12-April to 12-May -> crossover from solid pill to DIY liquid (water only), 10.2 mg, not stable; 10-September -> back to crushing and weighing, still 10.2 mg (102 mgpw)

2022: 13-March -> changed to DIY liquid with suspension vehicle, 10.2 mg

 

Supplements: 1 x ~125 mg magnesiumbiglycinate before bed, low histamine diet

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Hi Nomansland,

Thanks for your comment and support.

Interesting to hear the survey has made it onto the ADFD forum. That's good. Please do try to encourage people to participate.

Thanks again

Caspur

2011 - started Venlafaxine (again) at 75mg Raised to 150 mg at some point - unsure of dates. Reduced back down to 75 mg. Doctor advised this would be a lifetime, maintenance dose

2017 - Side effects now intolerable. Started taper from June 15th - 5% dose reduction steps (two 12 hourly doses).

2017 - October 20th - took last dose of Venlafaxine - 4 mg. Debilitating symptoms followed.

2017/18 - diazepam - 8mg/day for 1 month - 7 week taper Feb 2018

2017/18 - duloxetine - max 90mg - now stopped

2018 - Feb 25mg quetiapine, increased to 50mg.

2018 - March/April - increased venlafaxine slowly (10mg steps) to 75 mg/day. Recovery from withdrawal followed.

2018 - July 13 - stopped quetiapine after 2 month taper. Late July - had to reinstate quetiapine due to intolerable withdrawal. Now tapering from 25mg

2019 - June - stopped quetiapine after 10 month taper. Mild insomnia only symptom.

2021 - June - venlafaxine approx 6.0 mg see Taper history details

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  • 2 weeks later...

All,

Thank you very much to those who have completed the survey. We have received nearly 650 responses so far, from many withdrawal support groups.

 

There is no time limit on your opportunity to participate, so please do take a some time to do so if you haven't already.

 

Thanks again

Caspur

2011 - started Venlafaxine (again) at 75mg Raised to 150 mg at some point - unsure of dates. Reduced back down to 75 mg. Doctor advised this would be a lifetime, maintenance dose

2017 - Side effects now intolerable. Started taper from June 15th - 5% dose reduction steps (two 12 hourly doses).

2017 - October 20th - took last dose of Venlafaxine - 4 mg. Debilitating symptoms followed.

2017/18 - diazepam - 8mg/day for 1 month - 7 week taper Feb 2018

2017/18 - duloxetine - max 90mg - now stopped

2018 - Feb 25mg quetiapine, increased to 50mg.

2018 - March/April - increased venlafaxine slowly (10mg steps) to 75 mg/day. Recovery from withdrawal followed.

2018 - July 13 - stopped quetiapine after 2 month taper. Late July - had to reinstate quetiapine due to intolerable withdrawal. Now tapering from 25mg

2019 - June - stopped quetiapine after 10 month taper. Mild insomnia only symptom.

2021 - June - venlafaxine approx 6.0 mg see Taper history details

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • Mentor

I want to complete this but am just today starting my 4th go at coming off mirtazepine. Will it still be available later this year- maybe the autumn when I’m well into the taper?

am not a medical professional. I provide information and make suggestions based on my own experience and SA guidelines. I am unable to respond to private messages. 

Mirtazepine 15mg Nov 2018 -April 2019  April - Sept 2019 Mirtazepine down to around 6mg - skipping days to taper

October 2019 - Dec 2019 unwell from failed taper including jumping about in doses 

15 December 2019 to 13 June 2021 15mg Mirtazepine 

14 June 2021 started brass monkey Slide.  
2021: 23 August 12.3mg, 28 October 11.1mg, 6 Dec 10mg

2022: 12 Feb 8.5, 25 Oct 4.5mg

2023: 16 Jan 3.6mg, 28 Sept 1.8mg

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Hi Faure,

Thanks for your message. I would encourage you to participate in the survey now, as we don't know how long it will remain online at present. Your answers will still be of great use to us, even though you haven't completed a full taper.

Thanks

Capsur

2011 - started Venlafaxine (again) at 75mg Raised to 150 mg at some point - unsure of dates. Reduced back down to 75 mg. Doctor advised this would be a lifetime, maintenance dose

2017 - Side effects now intolerable. Started taper from June 15th - 5% dose reduction steps (two 12 hourly doses).

2017 - October 20th - took last dose of Venlafaxine - 4 mg. Debilitating symptoms followed.

2017/18 - diazepam - 8mg/day for 1 month - 7 week taper Feb 2018

2017/18 - duloxetine - max 90mg - now stopped

2018 - Feb 25mg quetiapine, increased to 50mg.

2018 - March/April - increased venlafaxine slowly (10mg steps) to 75 mg/day. Recovery from withdrawal followed.

2018 - July 13 - stopped quetiapine after 2 month taper. Late July - had to reinstate quetiapine due to intolerable withdrawal. Now tapering from 25mg

2019 - June - stopped quetiapine after 10 month taper. Mild insomnia only symptom.

2021 - June - venlafaxine approx 6.0 mg see Taper history details

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Thanks to all of you who have completed the survey. We have over 800 responses now, which is a good response rate.

 

We have a very good global coverage from many withdrawal support forums and social media groups.

 

Thanks again.

 

Caspur

2011 - started Venlafaxine (again) at 75mg Raised to 150 mg at some point - unsure of dates. Reduced back down to 75 mg. Doctor advised this would be a lifetime, maintenance dose

2017 - Side effects now intolerable. Started taper from June 15th - 5% dose reduction steps (two 12 hourly doses).

2017 - October 20th - took last dose of Venlafaxine - 4 mg. Debilitating symptoms followed.

2017/18 - diazepam - 8mg/day for 1 month - 7 week taper Feb 2018

2017/18 - duloxetine - max 90mg - now stopped

2018 - Feb 25mg quetiapine, increased to 50mg.

2018 - March/April - increased venlafaxine slowly (10mg steps) to 75 mg/day. Recovery from withdrawal followed.

2018 - July 13 - stopped quetiapine after 2 month taper. Late July - had to reinstate quetiapine due to intolerable withdrawal. Now tapering from 25mg

2019 - June - stopped quetiapine after 10 month taper. Mild insomnia only symptom.

2021 - June - venlafaxine approx 6.0 mg see Taper history details

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  • 1 year later...
On 5/18/2021 at 5:29 PM, Caspur said:

All,

Thank you very much to those who have completed the survey. We have received nearly 650 responses so far, from many withdrawal support groups.

 

There is no time limit on your opportunity to participate, so please do take a some time to do so if you haven't already.

 

Thanks again

Caspur

Wish I could have participated !

April 2020: 10mg Escitalopram 

July 2020: fast tapper tried to quit. Failed. 
september 2020: Trintellix 20mg. 
october 2021: fast taper off Trintellix (1 week). Reinstated 10mg in January 2022 for 3 weeks, failed, kindling effect so I quit rapidly, now off meds since then. 
 

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