ReviewTherapeutic advances in psychopharmacology2021
What I have learnt from helping thousands of people taper off antidepressants and other psychotropic medications.
Review in Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review of manipulations to pharmaceutical dosage forms used in psychotropic tapering plans.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) after stopping antidepressants: a systematic review with meta-narrative synthesis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Incidence and risk factors of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms: a meta-analysis and systematic review.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- An assessment of the reporting of tapering methods in antidepressant discontinuation trials using the TIDieR checklist.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Pharmacological principles for safe benzodiazepine and Z-drug dose reduction.Psychological medicine · 2026Review
- Helping people to discontinue antipsychotics: if, when and how.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- 'I Wish It Were More Often Told to People Before They Are Prescribed These Medications How Hard It Is to Get Off Them': A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis of Free-Text Responses to a Survey on Reducing and Stopping Psychiatric Medication.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- Antipsychotic Discontinuation through the Lens of Epistemic Injustice.Community mental health journal · 2025Article
- The missing link? Pharmacists' perspectives on discontinuation of long-term antidepressants: a qualitative study.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- The role of empathy in antidepressant withdrawal.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Hidden Costs: The Clinical and Research Pitfalls of Mistaking Antidepressant Withdrawal for Relapse.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2025Article
- Article
- 'We need more support and doctors that understand the process of tapering …': A content analysis of free-text responses to a questionnaire on discontinuing long-term benzodiazepine receptor agonist use.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Prevalence, trends, and individual patterns of long-term antidepressant medication use in the adult Swiss general population.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- Outcomes of hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- The experiences of 585 people when they tried to withdraw from antipsychotic drugs.Addictive behaviors reports · 2022Article
- Designing Flexible Longitudinal Regimens: Supporting Clinician Planning for Discontinuation of Psychiatric Drugs.Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. CHI Conference · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes have been recognized since the 1950s - recent studies confirm antidepressant withdrawal syndrome incidence upwards of 40% - medical information about how to safely go off the drugs has been lacking. To fill this gap, over the last 25 years, patients have developed a robust Internet-based subculture of peer support for tapering off psychiatric drugs and recovering from withdrawal syndrome. This account from the founder of such an online community covers lessons learned from thousands of patients regarding common experiences with medical providers, identification of adverse drug reactions, risk factors for withdrawal, tapering techniques, withdrawal symptoms, protracted withdrawal syndrome, and strategies to cope with symptoms, in the context of the existing scientific literature.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.