Research in recent years indicates that withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants are common and are more severe and long-lasting for some, with long-term users especially at risk of the symptoms.

Withdrawal symptoms are common for patients trying to quit their antidepressants, and for a substantial proportion of these users, the withdrawal effects are severe and long-lasting, a new study indicates.

While there is disagreement in research findings over the years about the incidence, severity and duration of withdrawal symptoms from stopping antidepressants, research in recent years has indicated that the symptoms are more prevalent and may be worse and linger longer than previously thought, especially for long-time users. 

To collect and further assess data on withdrawal symptoms, British researchers surveyed adult patients, recruited from primary care settings, who had ever tried to stop antidepressants.  The 310 respondents to the survey met the minimum number the researchers deemed necessary to determine the incidence of withdrawal symptoms.

The results of their survey showed that 79% of antidepressant users experienced some degree of withdrawal symptoms, with nearly half of them (45%) reporting that the symptoms were severe or moderately severe.  More than one in three (38%) were not able to stop antidepressants after one or more attempts. 

When stopping their antidepressants, more than half of survey respondents reported experiencing some degree of increased anxiety, worsened mood, agitation, tearfulness, fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, irritability, confusion or trouble concentrating, angry outbursts, headache, forgetfulness, dizziness/lightheadedness, and/or derealization/depersonalization.

As for how long the withdrawal symptoms persisted, 59% reported their symptoms lasted less than 4 weeks, while one in five (20%) reported a duration of more than 3 months and one in ten (10%) experienced symptoms for more than a year. 

Those who used antidepressants for more than 24 months before to trying to stop were five times more likely to experience severe withdrawal symptoms and to be unable to stop than users who took the drugs for less than 6 months. 

“Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms were common, and severe and prolonged for a substantial proportion of users,” wrote the study’s lead author, Mark A. Horowitz, MBBS, Ph.D., researcher and founder of the Psychiatric Drug Deprescribing Clinic at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. 

The researchers in the study recommended that antidepressant “guidelines should be updated accordingly and patients informed of these risks” when deciding whether to start or stop taking the drugs.  They also advised that “the increasing withdrawal risks with longer use provides one rationale to minimise long-term antidepressant prescribing.”  The study was published in Psychiatry Research. 

An urgency to know more about antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and how to treat patients experiencing them comes from the fact that some 45 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants.  Among them is a growing number who have reportedly used the drugs for years.  As recent research is indicating, an untold number of them may no longer be depressed, but instead be unable to come off their antidepressants because of the debilitating withdrawal symptoms they experience.  

“Some 15.5 million Americans have taken antidepressants for at least five years,” according to science reporter Benedict Carey, writing in the New York Times in 2018.  “The rate has almost doubled since 2010, and more than tripled since 2000,” he added.

“What you see is the number of long-term users just piling up year after year,” said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, quoted in Carey’s article.

Other recent research has also indicated that the longer antidepressants were used, the greater the risk of experiencing withdrawal symptoms when stopping.

Even more fundamentally, recent research findings have raised the question of prescribing antidepressants in the first place.  Because a common rationale for prescribing SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants, the most commonly prescribed type of antidepressant, is to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain, researchers recently conducted a comprehensive review of all relevant research and found that the theory of a low level of the brain chemical serotonin causing depression is not supported by scientific evidence.  The researchers conducting the study wrote that the finding “calls into question the basis for the use of antidepressants.”

“The FDA must take immediate action due to the growing body of research indicating that withdrawal symptoms when attempting to stop using antidepressants are more widely experienced and potentially more severe and persistent than current prescribing information and medication guides indicate,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office.  “With tens of millions of Americans taking antidepressants, many of them for years, FDA action is long overdue on this urgent public health issue.”

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other prescriber. 

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.