The People's Pharmacy® with Joe and Terry Graedon

AMEN! I have attempted to stop taking Paxil however the sickness and body reactions experienced after 3 days were horrible. I can not afford to take that much time off of work and I had no idea how long the effects would last. When I explained it to my doctor he said "Don't worry, it's ok for you to stay on the medication indefinetly." HELP!

I had a similar experience with a pain medication, Oxycontin. When I was being weaned from from it, I felt terrible, too. When I discussed this with my doctor, he told me these were withdrawal symptoms. It was easily remedied by altering the size of the reduction. That worked fine, and the rest of the time I had no further problems. When I got down to the very smallest dose available, I asked my doctor if I could take it every other day until I was totally off, and he agreed to my plan. I wonder if anti-depressants can be drawn down in the same way?

There needs to be education for patients who no longer need such drugs so they can avoid this kind of hell. I'd like to see doctors make better use of video tapes and/or CDs for this purpose. They wouldn't even have to take the time to talk about it personally unless the patient has further questions.

I found similar unpleasant reactions when I tried to get off PAXIL. I reduced the dosage , went to every other day and still there are mind problems. Am also worried about long term effects !

My friend’s buddy, a psychiatrist who does research and teaches at Harvard, told me that about half of those taking an anti-depressant experience ‘discontinuation syndrome’ when coming off it (I assume they reserve the term ‘withdrawal’ for drugs that are physically addictive). A while ago, I weaned myself off Zoloft by reducing the amount VERY VERY slowly. Sometimes, if the symptoms are too much, a well-trained psychiatrist will switch you to a drug in the same class (e.g. another SSRI) that has a longer half-life (such as Prozac) and wean you down slowly on that. Cymbalta affects both neuroprenephrine and serotonin; therefore, I don’t know how well that would work (although, during a recent return to medication, I recently switched from Cymbalta to Zoloft and didn’t feel anything negative so…).

These medications have a ‘price’ many of us have to pay during the adjustment period (side effects, which usually go away after about 6 weeks) and the weaning-off period (although many seem to think that almost all of these effects can be virtually eliminated with a LONG tapering-down period). One of the things that’s been done for those who have trouble tolerating the side effects during the adjustment period (when the patient is being brought up to a therapeutic dose) is to use a liquid form of the medication to very slowly move up on the dose (e.g. Lexapro comes in liquid form and allows the patient to increase by 1 mg [1ml]). I wonder if the same can be done during the weaning off period – e.g. switch to the liquid form of the medication (if it’s available) and wean off very slowly.

One other very important thing to consider: side effects (during the adjustment period) and ‘discontinuation syndrome’ effects (during the weaning-off period) may be reduced by better diet and exercise (30 minutes of daily exercise w/ veggies, fruits, and low processed foods and sugar).
Some more info: A knowledgeable psychiatrist told me that medications only do part of the job. Diet and exercise (see above) are needed, too. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy [CBT] (and, for disorders like OCD and panic, EX/RP) therapy is needed (along w/ mindfulness training).

It’s difficult to find someone who actually knows this stuff, however (many THINK they do but they don’t). I found the mindfulness training very helpful. Research has also been done on omega-3s for depression and bipolar treatment. Finally, there are some very significant studies proving the positive effects of ‘resonant breathing’ (done twice/day, 20 minutes each time) for disorders such as panic and depression (for example, one Harvard-graduate psychologist does this research at Robert Wood Johnson in NJ). It takes 90 days to have an effect but small studies are very promising.

After 4 years of Cognitive Therapy and combination drug therapy for depression, my psychopharmacologist doctor helped me transition to a non-medicated state. I was taking Ritalin and Effexor. I had no problem discontinuing the Ritalin. The 300mg daily dosage of Effexor was VERY SLOWLY decreased by 25mg/two week increments until I was medication free. I honestly have to say that the only side effect I experienced were occasional "electric shock" sensations in my head. Those sensations were annoying because of their randomness, they were never disabling...I continued to work at my job throughout.
I agree with Mr. Hyman's post that a very gradual weaning-off period may help significantly with uncomfortable and possibly disabling symptoms of anti-depressant medication discontinuation.

Like many people, I started taking an SSRI (Paxil) because my doctor said it was a good medication. He never warned me about the discontinuation (withdrawal) effects. I've had most symptoms: flu like symptoms, dizziness, extreme fatigue, tingling, burning sensations, extreme anxiety... The list goes on.

Some of us experience extreme withdrawal and this isn't uncommon. Also, this may last for several months. I still feel some after 7 months off. Of course, it isn't as intense as the first couple months but it is still hard to deal with sometimes.

Something needs to be done to educate patients who put all their trust on a doctor who isn't educated on SSRI discontinuation issues. (By the way, I think the pharmaceutical companies decided to call it 'discontinuation' instead of 'withdrawal' so that it doesn't sound so bad.)