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[FiveNotions]

Recognising and managing antidepressant discontinuation symptoms
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 2007
http://apt.rcpsych.o...t/13/6/447.full


This is another older article (I've posted a couple others from this time period here recently) ... it notes that this issue was identified as early as 1959.


What I'm noting in my research on this issue is that there was a relative "wealth" of research/information on this topic starting to come out in the late 1990s and early 2000s ... then, it all seemed to "dry up" ... this strikes me as a rather remarkable coincidence in timing, as it was during the early 2000s that "big pharma" began to actively fund scientific research .... my argument/position is that the infusion of big pharma money into what had been independent research, particularly at the university level, has been increasingly tainting results and silencing all results that are critical of, opposed to, the "teaching" of big pharma that there are no issues, no problems ... resulting in the current "medical opinion" of most of our docs that discontinuation doesn't exist ... (just my 2 cents worth) ...

From the article:

"Antidepressant discontinuation (withdrawal) symptoms were first reported in association with imipramine (Mann & MacPherson, 1959; Andersen & Kristiansen, 1959), the first tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), shortly after it entered clinical use. These symptoms occur with all classes of antidepressant, including the TCAs, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and miscellaneous others such as mirtazapine, a noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA). A PubMed review conducted when preparing this article identified reports of discontinuation symptoms with 25 antidepressants. . . "

FTA:
An important clinical aspect of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms is the potential for their misdiagnosis, as either a physical or a psychiatric disorder, leading to the offer of inappropriate management for the ‘incorrect’ diagnosis. In particular, discontinuation symptoms may be diagnosed as a relapse or recurrence of the underlying affective illness for which the antidepressant was originally prescribed, although other scenarios exist . . . It is not known how often misdiagnosis occurs. In our experience it usually results from clinicians’ unfamiliarity with antidepressant discontinuation syndromes rather than the symptoms being difficult to diagnose.

[ShadyLady]

Glad to see you posting and your research that is always helpful. I've missed you!