ArticleTherapeutic advances in psychopharmacology2021
Successful use of tapering strips for hyperbolic reduction of antidepressant dose: a cohort study.
Article 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 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Deprescribing Antidepressants in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Discontinuation Approaches, Cross-Titration, and Withdrawal Symptoms.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Effects of discontinuation of serotonergic antidepressants prior to psilocybin therapy versus escitalopram for major depression.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- '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
- The role of empathy in antidepressant withdrawal.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 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
- Interactions between classic psychedelics and serotonergic antidepressants: Effects on the acute psychedelic subjective experience, well-being and depressive symptoms from a prospective survey study.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Acceptability and optimisation of resources to support antidepressant cessation: a qualitative think-aloud study with patients in Australian primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Article
- Managing withdrawal symptoms using tapering strips.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
- Outcomes of hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Withdrawal Syndrome Following Discontinuation of 28 Antidepressants: Pharmacovigilance Analysis of 31,688 Reports from the WHO Spontaneous Reporting Database.Drug safety · 2022Article
- Clinical practice guideline recommendations on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants for depression: a systematic review.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTapering strips facilitate antidepressant discontinuation, allowing for personalised titration of discontinuation to the intensity of withdrawal. A tapering strip consists of antidepressant or other medication, packaged in a 28-day roll of daily pouches, each with the same or slightly lower dose than the one before. Previous studies demonstrated 70% real-world effectiveness of tapering strips. Here, we present a third, questionnaire-based retrospective cohort study in a large sample.
methodsPatients whose doctor had prescribed tapering strips between October 2015 and December 2018 were sent a questionnaire for participation after completion of tapering between December 2015 and January 2020. Of 1240 individuals who returned a questionnaire (response rate: 59%), 987 (80%) used an antidepressant, of whom 824 (83%) had wished to discontinue their antidepressant.
resultsThe sample was demographically representative of antidepressant users in the Netherlands. Less than 40% of participants had heard of tapering strips through their clinicians - Internet was the most frequent source. Of the 824 individuals, 341 (41%) had used strips for tapering venlafaxine, 206 (25%) for paroxetine and 277 (34%) for other antidepressants. Median duration of antidepressant use was 5-10 years, and most (71%) had tried to come off without tapering strips at least once. Most patients (72%) were able to discontinue their antidepressant, using a median of two strips to taper over a median period of 56 days. Females and individuals with (1) more severe experience of withdrawal during the use of tapering strips, (2) more years of use of antidepressant medication and (3) more previous attempts at discontinuation were less likely to be able to discontinue their antidepressant medication with tapering strips.
conclusionThe results of this study validate, for the third time, the observation that tapering strips can address the problem of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms in individuals attempting to discontinue antidepressants.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.