Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms may be less common than we thought

Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms can be less common than we thought, at least for short -term use – but questions remain on what happens to people who stop taking medication after much longer periods.

We know that people taking antidepressants for conditions such as depression, anxiety and phobias can feel withdrawal symptoms which can last a few weeks, such as nausea, headache, anxiety and depression, but although doctors can warn people of this possibility, it is not clear how many times they occur.

To find out more, Sameer Jauhar at the Imperial College of London and her colleagues examined 49 randomized controlled trials for the use of antidepressants. They first analyzed a subset of studies that followed the number of withdrawal symptoms that the participants felt a week after stopping antidepressants, leaving placebo pills or continued to take antidepressants. The researchers found that those who stopped taking medication presented an additional symptom compared to those of the other two groups.

In another analysis, the team examined another subset of studies that followed the types of withdrawal symptoms that participants felt after leaving antidepressants or placebo pills. Luries have proven to be the most common symptom, followed by nausea, nervousness or irritability and vertigo.

Specifically, 7.5% of people in the antidepressant group experienced stunning, while this figure was 1.8% in the placebo group. Nausea, nervousness or irritability and dizziness have each been reported by less than 5% of people in the antidepressant group, and less than 2% in the placebo group.

These figures are less than two prior estimates of withdrawal symptoms. A 2019 review revealed that more than half of people had symptoms, but this included online surveys, so may be biased by people with more serious symptoms being more likely to respond, explains Michael Browning at Oxford University.

Another estimate, published last year, revealed that 31% of people said weaning symptoms, compared to 17% of placebo groups. But they did not give details on the types of symptoms felt, explains Jahar.

Susannah Murphy at the University of Oxford said that the new journal addresses some of these problems. “This is really important for the field: it collects and summarizes data from many robust studies involving more participants than the previous ones,” she says.

But John Read at the University of East London stresses that most studies in the journal included participants who were under antidepressants for only eight to 12 weeks, while people often take them for years. “There is a strong relationship between the duration of these drugs and whether or not you end up with withdrawal, therefore in the short term [use] Studies do not tell you much about the effects of the real world, ”he says.

As such, you would need more studies involving long -term use to get a real answer, explains Mark Horowitz to the University College in London. “It’s like crushing a car in a wall at 5 kilometers an hour, and saying that it is safe, but ignore the fact that people drive on the roads at 60 kilometers per hour.”