Stopping your medicine may be the right choice for you. But first, you should talk with your health care provider. The safe way to stop taking this medicine is to lower the dose over time. If you stop taking the medicine suddenly, you are at risk for:
Depression or anxiety might not come back right away when you stop taking the medicine, but it may come back in the future. If you start to feel depressed or anxious again, call your provider. You should also call your provider if you have the withdrawal symptoms listed above. It is very important to get help if you have any thoughts of harming yourself or others.
stop depresion
Antidepressant withdrawal is possible if you abruptly stop taking an antidepressant, particularly if you've been taking it longer than four to six weeks. Symptoms of antidepressant withdrawal are sometimes called antidepressant discontinuation syndrome and typically last for a few weeks. Certain antidepressants are more likely to cause withdrawal symptoms than others.
To minimize the risk of antidepressant withdrawal, talk with your doctor before you stop taking an antidepressant. Your doctor may recommend that you gradually reduce the dose of your antidepressant for several weeks or more to allow your body to adapt to the absence of the medication.
In some cases, your doctor may prescribe another antidepressant or another type of medication on a short-term basis to help ease symptoms as your body adjusts. If you're switching from one type of antidepressant to another, your doctor may have you start taking the new one before you completely stop taking the original medication.
It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between withdrawal symptoms and returning depression symptoms after you stop taking an antidepressant. Keep your doctor informed of your signs and symptoms. If your depression symptoms return, your doctor may recommend that you start taking an antidepressant again or that you get other treatment.
Antidepressants are usually taken daily. The goal in the first few weeks and months is to relieve the symptoms and, where possible, make the depression go away. Once that has been achieved, the treatment is continued for at least four to nine months. This continuation therapy is necessary to stop the symptoms from coming back. The medication is sometimes taken for longer to prevent relapses. The duration of treatment also depends on how the symptoms continue to develop over time and whether the depression is likely to return. Some people take antidepressants over many years.
It's important to have regular appointments with your doctor when taking antidepressants. There you can talk about whether the symptoms have improved and whether there are any side effects. The dose will be adjusted if necessary. By no means should you reduce the dose or stop taking the medication on your own. That can make the tablets less effective, or they may cause more side effects.
Towards the end of the treatment, the dose is gradually reduced over the course of several weeks. You may experience temporary sleep problems, nausea or restlessness when coming off antidepressants. These symptoms are especially likely if you suddenly stop taking antidepressants. Sometimes people stop taking their medication as soon as they start feeling better, but that increases the risk of the depression coming back. Unlike many sleeping pills and sedatives, antidepressants don't cause physical dependence or addiction.
The side effects of tricyclic antidepressants are often worse than those of SSRIs and SNRIs. More people tend to stop taking tricyclic antidepressants because of this: Studies found that about 15 out of 100 people who were taking tricyclic antidepressants did so, compared to around 10 out of 100 people who were taking SSRIs. There's also a greater risk of severe side effects if an overdose of tricyclic antidepressants is taken.
Do not stop taking antidepressants without the help of a health care provider. Sometimes people taking antidepressants feel better and then stop taking the medication on their own, and the depression returns. Stopping medications abruptly can cause withdrawal symptoms. When a woman and her health care provider have decided it is time to stop the medication, the health care provider will help her to decrease the dose slowly and safely. To find the latest information about antidepressants, talk to a health care provider and visit this U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) webpage on the use of medications during and after pregnancy.
The decision to go off antidepressants should be considered thoughtfully and made with the support of your physician or therapist to make sure you're not stopping prematurely, risking a recurrence of depression. Once you decide to quit, you and your physician should take steps to minimize or avoid the discontinuation symptoms that can occur if such medications are withdrawn too quickly.
Neurotransmitters act throughout the body, and you may experience physical as well as mental effects when you stop taking antidepressants or lower the dose too fast. Common complaints include the following:
Besides easing the transition, tapering the dose decreases the risk that depression will recur. In a Harvard Medical School study, nearly 400 patients (two-thirds of them women) were followed for more than a year after they stopped taking antidepressants prescribed for mood and anxiety disorders. Participants who discontinued rapidly (over one to seven days) were more likely to relapse within a few months than those who reduced the dose gradually over two or more weeks.
Take your time. You may be tempted to stop taking antidepressants as soon as your symptoms ease, but depression can return if you quit too soon. Clinicians generally recommend staying on the medication for six to nine months before considering going off antidepressants. If you've had three or more recurrences of depression, make that at least two years.
Talk to your clinician about the benefits and risks of antidepressants in your particular situation, and work with her or him in deciding whether (and when) to stop using them. Before discontinuing, you should feel confident that you're functioning well, that your life circumstances are stable, and that you can cope with any negative thoughts that might emerge. Don't try to quit while you're under stress or undergoing a significant change in your life, such as a new job or an illness.
Complete the taper. By the time you stop taking the medication, your dose will be tiny. (You may already have been cutting your pills in half or using a liquid formula to achieve progressively smaller doses.) Some psychiatrists prescribe a single 20-milligram tablet of fluoxetine the day after the last dose of a shorter-acting antidepressant in order to ease its final washout from the body, although this approach hasn't been tested in a clinical trial.
Check in with your clinician one month after you've stopped the medication altogether. At this follow-up appointment, she or he will check to make sure discontinuation symptoms have eased and there are no signs of returning depression. Ongoing monthly check-ins may be advised.
Healthcare providers often recommend using light therapy throughout the entire winter. SAD symptoms can return quickly after stopping light therapy. Continuing to use the therapy can help you feel your best throughout the season.
A depression relapse happens when symptoms start to reappear or worsen again during recovery from an earlier episode. Relapse is most likely to occur within 2 months of stopping treatment for a previous episode.
Thirty years after these drugs made their debut, scientists are still sorting out how antidepressants affect brain function and what happens when people try to stop taking them. As the evidence for withdrawal effects accumulates, some professional groups are revisiting guidelines for prescribers. Meanwhile, psychologists have a role to play in helping patients understand the effects of antidepressant drugs, and in supporting them through decision-making and possible side effects if they decide to discontinue them.
Meanwhile, patients who benefit from antidepressants may not need to stay on them long term. Some may want to quit because of side effects such as loss of sexual desire or decreased arousal. In other cases, their prescribers may recommend they stop taking the medications. The American Psychiatric Association guidelines, for example, indicate that patients should continue the drugs for four to nine months after treatment for the acute phase of major depression before tapering to discontinuation, and that only those with chronic or recurrent depression should consider continuing the drugs to prevent relapse. Yet the most recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than two-thirds of people on antidepressants in the United States have been taking them for at least two years, while a quarter have been on them for more than 10.
You may think you should stop taking medication for depression when you are pregnant. Remember that, if left untreated, depression can have serious effects for both you and your baby. If you are taking antidepressants and are thinking about getting pregnant (or are already pregnant), talk to your doctor first, before stopping any medication. You can also consult the following trusted resources: www.mothertobaby.org, www.medicinesinpregnancy.org.
This study included people who had two previous relapses of depression. Researchers compared rates of relapse in those who continued on antidepressants with those who stopped. They found that people who stopped medication were more likely to relapse. However, more than 4 in 10 people who stopped taking antidepressants had no relapse of their depression.
The study included 478 people aged 18 - 74 years, who were treated at 150 general practices in Bristol, London, Southampton, and York. Participants had all had two previous relapses of depression. They had been taking one of the 4 most commonly prescribed antidepressants (citalopram, sertraline, fluoxetine, or mirtazapine) for at least 9 months, and were well enough to consider stopping. 2ff7e9595c
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