Patients are still not being warned how difficult it can be to come off antidepressants, say psychiatrists campaigning for a reduction in the needless use of the drugs. Yet the withdrawal symptoms are frequently mistaken for a relapse in the condition for which the drugs were prescribed and, as a result, patients end up being put back on them. Under current NICE guidance, unchanged since 2004, withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants are described as ‘usually mild and self-limiting over about one week’. But both research and patients’ experience suggest otherwise, with severe symptoms including nausea, insomnia, anxiety and panic attacks that can last for weeks — or longer. For many people with more severe depression, antidepressants are an effective treatment.’

Source: Daily Mail May 20, 2019 21:39 UTC