The nature and impact of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and proposal of the Discriminatory Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Scale (DAWSS), 2024

The nature and impact of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and proposal of the Discriminatory Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Scale (DAWSS)

Highlights

• Antidepressant withdrawal can be severe and protracted.
  
  
• It produces characteristic physical and emotional symptoms.
  
  
• All symptoms were more severe after stopping than before starting antidepressants.
  
  
• We identified the 15 most discriminatory withdrawal symptoms in our sample.
  
  
• Withdrawal did not differ between people with physical or mental health diagnoses.
  

Abstract

Background
We sought to understand more about the nature and possible consequences of antidepressant withdrawal.

Methods
We surveyed members of 20 peer-led, online groups, assessing 31 commonly reported antidepressant withdrawal symptoms.

Results
There were 1148 respondents, who were mostly white, female and educated. For 40 % of respondents, withdrawal symptoms had lasted more than 2 years and 80 % were moderately or severely impacted by them. One in four were unable to stop their antidepressant. Reported consequences of withdrawal included impaired work function (56 %), losing jobs (20 %), taking sick leave (27 %), and relationship breakdown (25 %). Both emotional and physical symptoms newly occurred or increased in severity following antidepressant withdrawal compared to before starting antidepressants. There was no difference in the nature of symptoms, severity or duration between people with physical or mental health diagnoses. We have proposed a potential Discriminatory Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Scale (DAWSS), comprising the 15 symptoms most specific to withdrawal (including electric shock sensations, dizziness, akathisia or restlessness, vertigo, and vomiting), which requires further validation.

Limitations
The sample was derived from peer support groups and is not representative of everyone who undergoes antidepressant withdrawal. The cross-sectional design precludes establishing causal relationships between variables.

Conclusions
Our findings suggest there is a distinctive antidepressant withdrawal syndrome characterised by a range of emotional and physical symptoms, which can be severe, prolonged and have profound impact. The DAWSS may be helpful in distinguishing withdrawal from underlying conditions. Health services need to provide evidence-based clinical advice and support to people on long-term antidepressants.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915324000519?via=ihub

 

When the speed of funerals is just way, way too fast for you: "something that hundreds of millions have consistently reported for decades, I guess it could possibly be conceivable that it could maybe exist and be something similar to what is reported".

It's going to be something when soon everything gets recorded and counted thanks to medical AIs. So much that has been covered up will be revealed. And if something this big can be covered up for this long, and in addition to that pretty much all chronic illnesses, affecting a combined 100M+ people, there are probably hundreds more scandals that basically dwarf all the medical scandals in the past, since it seems that cover-up is how it's always done. It's only when the outcomes are beyond obvious, like say Thalidomide, that anything happens.

In forum discussions on AI that have nothing to do with health, that is they are either general technology or science forums, I keep seeing just how excessive and common the failures of caring and listening are in health care, how so many people are longing for the days of medical AIs not because it will make medicine better, but because it will make it meet the bare minimum of expected standards. In all other professions you always find people complaining about some companies, but not the whole, not the entire industry. Only in health care. Failure to listen, to even bother to try. It's all too limited by the scarcity of professionals and resources. Like we had only 10% of the roadway available but just as many cars around.

 

Interesting but indeed not representative of everyone who undergoes antidepressant withdrawal.