SSRI Withdrawal -
How to Safely Stop Your Antidepressant

If you decide that you want to discontinue any prescribed medication, do not do so abruptly. Abruptly stopping your medication can lead to serious medical complications. While there is no good evidence that your depression was caused by a chemical imbalance, antidepressant medications can be understood as creating an imbalance by altering your brain's chemistry. After having taken medications for some time, your body will likely become dependent on them and must be detoxed carefully.

Try to find a doctor, preferably a psychiatrist, who will agree to phase you off of your drugs. Many doctors do not have the time to study drug research themselves and rely on representatives from the pharmaceutical companies to inform them. As your might imagine, this can lead to a very biased view on the part of a large percentage of doctors. If the first doctor you approach is unwilling to help you get off of your medications, remember that the choice is yours. You are free to find another doctor who will.

SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome can occur during abrupt withdrawal from an SSRI, so tapering is important. The following tapering schedules are taken from the wikipedia article on SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome. They should be seen as an absolute minimum level of caution. Please go at your own pace and do not go faster than your body can handle.

• Fluoxetine (Prozac): Reduce by 5 mg every two weeks until dose is 5 mg/day, then 2.5 mg/day every two weeks.
• Fluvoxamine (Luvox), Sertraline (Zoloft), Venlafaxine (Effexor): Reduce by 25 mg every two weeks until dose is 25 mg/day, then 12.5 mg/day every two weeks.
• Paroxetine (Paxil): Reduce by 10 mg every two weeks until dose is 10 mg/day, then 5.0 mg/day every two weeks

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This site is maintained by Tim Desmond, MFTI 51287
copyright © 2008 Tim Desmond, MA. Last updated 10Sept2008.
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