About 29 million American adults, adolescents, and children are on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In many countries globally some 5-10% of the population are on SSRIs. These have become the first-line treatment for depression.
SSRIs can cause sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting in up to half of people, an unclear incidence of sleep disruption, and a rare risk of suicidality, self-harm, and new-onset psychosis.
Getting off SSRIs can cause discontinuation syndrome in 20-50% of people. It is more common, more severe, and lasts longer when people have been SSRIs for years instead of weeks or months. Many of the discontinuation symptoms represent new-onset dysfunction that cannot be explained by the withdrawal of an effective treatment for the pre-existing depression, such as headache, derealization, depersonalization, cramps, gait abnormalities, and “brain zaps.”
Tapering for many people needs to be extremely slow and it should always be hyperbolic rather than linear, meaning your dose reductions get smaller and smaller as you go on.
Click through to read about the best approach to tapering:
Chris Masterjohn, PhD
How to Taper Off SSRIs
About 29 million American adults, adolescents, and children are on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In many countries globally some 5-10% of the population are on SSRIs. These have become the first-line treatment for depression.
SSRIs can cause sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting in up to half of people, an unclear incidence of sleep disruption, and a rare risk of suicidality, self-harm, and new-onset psychosis.
Getting off SSRIs can cause discontinuation syndrome in 20-50% of people. It is more common, more severe, and lasts longer when people have been SSRIs for years instead of weeks or months. Many of the discontinuation symptoms represent new-onset dysfunction that cannot be explained by the withdrawal of an effective treatment for the pre-existing depression, such as headache, derealization, depersonalization, cramps, gait abnormalities, and “brain zaps.”
Tapering for many people needs to be extremely slow and it should always be hyperbolic rather than linear, meaning your dose reductions get smaller and smaller as you go on.
Click through to read about the best approach to tapering:
chrismasterjohnphd.substack.com/p/how-to-taper-of-…
3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 29