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Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

newscientist.com

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Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#181

Post by clsec »

drayfield wrote: post #128

I've been on 40mg citalopram for about 20 years now. I've tried a few times to come off either tapering or cold turkey and in all cases it's been horrendous. My biggest worry is that I'll never be able to come off them as I'm on such a high dosage, even if it was tapered off over a very long period of time.

I said it elsewhere, but it took me a month of micro dosing down to get off my 40mg/day citalopram habit, which I had been on for 15 years. And even on my own super slowed down schedule I still experienced massive side effects. Good luck to you if you ever decide to wean yourself off of it & always remember to keep backup citalopram in case you can't get your script refilled right away.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#182

Post by mexicocitinluez »

karthikeyankc wrote: post #176
sandcat_ wrote: post #7

To provide one additional anecdote: I came off escitalopram with no taper after taking it for about five years (10mg). I got brain zaps for a while, got very irritated at times, but largely was fine after a few weeks. Not downplaying the withdrawal effects for some people, but they’re not as catastrophic as this article suggests for many (perhaps most). And overall I’m very glad I took it! It got me through a rough p…

Me too. I was prescribed escitalopram along with other SSRIs when I lost my mom. Even with tapering, I had brain zaps for a while. Before I could stop it all completely, I was ramped up again after I lost my wife. I'm not sure if I'd be actually functional or even be here if it weren't for these meds.

What was the tapering like for an SSRI? Do you remember over what period of time and how it was decreased?

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#183

Post by bitmasher9 »

chewbacha wrote: post #153

I’ve been on a SSRI for 5 years and not once have I thought about getting off of it. It literally saved my life. I remember a while life of depression and constant churn of recursive emotions destroying me. I’m worried that too many people are downplaying the benefits that this drug for those of us that it has helped immensely. And it’s extra risky to be downplaying it while RFK jr is actively working to remove the d…

I’m happy for your extreme good response to the drug. I’ve witnessed this type of response in my close circle once, and it is life saving medication in these situations.

I think it’s important to highlight that not every person has the same response to these medications. I think it’s absolutely something anyone struggling with depression should try, but there should be expectations about how long to stay on a medication before moving on.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#185

Post by drayfield »

clsec wrote: post #181
drayfield wrote: post #128

I've been on 40mg citalopram for about 20 years now. I've tried a few times to come off either tapering or cold turkey and in all cases it's been horrendous. My biggest worry is that I'll never be able to come off them as I'm on such a high dosage, even if it was tapered off over a very long period of time.

I said it elsewhere, but it took me a month of micro dosing down to get off my 40mg/day citalopram habit, which I had been on for 15 years. And even on my own super slowed down schedule I still experienced massive side effects. Good luck to you if you ever decide to wean yourself off of it & always remember to keep backup citalopram in case you can't get your script refilled right away.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#186

Post by sparklingmango »

bb123 wrote: post #126

There is a real lack of transparency in communicating some of the long term impacts of SSRIs to new patients. When I was prescribed sertraline not one doctor mentioned the massive (and sometimes permanent!!) sexual side effects, the likelihood of weight gain or how brutal it would be to taper off. Also, I ended up ignoring my doctor's (way too aggressive) tapering schedule and managing my own down-dosing with a pill…

Could you share the specific mg/week taper you did for Sertraline?

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#187

Post by karthikeyankc »

mexicocitinluez wrote: post #182
karthikeyankc wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. I was prescribed escitalopram along with other SSRIs when I lost my mom. Even with tapering, I had brain zaps for a while. Before I could stop it all completely, I was ramped up again after I lost my wife. I'm not sure if I'd be actually functional or even be here if it weren't for these meds.

What was the tapering like for an SSRI? Do you remember over what period of time and how it was decreased?

It was monthly. I don't remember the order of the medications, but I remember the effects. The most prominent one were the brain zaps and some confusions, especially in the mornings. On the bright side, I had some creativity coming back to me and I started back on some of my creative outlets (mostly my wife and therapy helped me come back to reality). And my biggest relief was when my brain fog (sometimes I even forgot my colleagues' names) cleared up. But yeah, before I could stop it completely I was fast tracked back up on a different regimen of SSRI combinations after my wife's accident.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#188

Post by IncreasePosts »

mapt wrote: post #139
jychang wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AWS Gemini-20 below $100 Or a precision one for $$$ All the other sub-$100 ones are mostly junk, with a few decent ones. But just get the Gemini-20

Like buying a five gallon boiling flask, one assumes this will get one put on a list in the US.

You can just tell anyone who comes asking that you will not be harassed in your private domicile.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#189

Post by movespebp »

simiones wrote: post #103
delichon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good news, exposure therapy is quite effective for arachnophobia and is the first-line treatment. SSRIs do not have the same level of supporting evidence, and the effects are not as durable.

> SSRIs do not have the same level of supporting evidence, and the effects are not as durable. To the extent that we can measure depression, SSRIs have been widely proven in gold standard phase III clinical trials to help with the treatment of major depression. What exactly is supposed to be lacking in the supported evidence?

Unfortunately many of the trials look like this : https://study329.org/ - the ghost written study concluded “Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.”

The reality of the actual trial data was very different - with catastrophic results for many.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#190

Post by [deleted] »

laughing_man wrote: post #37

SSRIs and SNRIs just didn't work very well for me. If they had an positive effect at all, it wasn't enough to rise above the proverbial noise. Coming off of them wasn't too bad though. I got the brain zaps, but those were easy to cope with. More than anything the whole experience was a waste of money, and what finally fixed my problems was retirement and a greater attention to my health.

[deleted]
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