ReviewTherapeutic advances in psychopharmacology2022
Clinical practice guideline recommendations on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants for depression: a systematic review.
Review in Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative efficacy and acceptability of anxiolytic drugs for the treatment of anxiety disorders: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Discontinuing antidepressant medication: a qualitative evidence synthesis and logic model based on health professionals' views.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- How duration and frequency influence horticultural therapy's effect on depressive symptoms: evidence from a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 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
- Structured Online Support to Inform and Assist Antidepressant Deprescribing in Primary Care (WiserAD Tool): Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Article
- Treatment persistence and modification patterns of SSRIs in children and adolescents with depression: a nationwide population-based study in South Korea.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- '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
- Healthcare Providers' Perspectives on Antidepressant Discontinuation: A Focus Group Study.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Article
- Antidepressant therapeutic strategies and health care utilization in patients with depression.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2024Article
- Article
- Treatment-resistant depression: molecular mechanisms and management.Molecular biomedicine · 2024Review
- The Dropout Rates and Associated Factors in Patients with Mood Disorders in Long-term Naturalistic Treatment.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Treatment-emergent sexual dysfunctions due to antidepressants: A primer on assessment and management strategies.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2024Article
- Psychotropic and other medicine use at time of death by suicide: a population-level analysis of linked dispensing and forensic toxicology data.The Medical journal of Australia · 2023Article
- Outcomes of hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Article
- Priorities for future research on reducing and stopping psychiatric medicines using a James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership: The PROTECT study protocol.HRB open research · 2022Article
- Mobile phone applications to support psychotropic tapering: a scoping review protocol.HRB open research · 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
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTapering and discontinuing antidepressants are important aspects of the management of patients with depression and should therefore be considered in clinical practice guidelines.
objectivesWe aimed to assess the extent and content, and appraise the quality, of guidance on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants in major clinical practice guidelines on depression.
methodsSystematic review of clinical practice guidelines on depression issued by national health authorities and major national or international professional organisations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Ireland and New Zealand (PROSPERO CRD42020220682). We searched PubMed, 14 guideline registries and the websites of relevant organisations (last search 25 May 2021). The clinical practice guidelines were assessed for recommendations and information relevant to tapering and discontinuing antidepressants. The quality of the clinical practice guidelines as they pertained to tapering and discontinuation was assessed using the AGREE II tool.
resultsOf the 21 included clinical practice guidelines, 15 (71%) recommended that antidepressants are tapered gradually or slowly, but none provided guidance on dose reductions, how to distinguish withdrawal symptoms from relapse or how to manage withdrawal symptoms. Psychological challenges were not addressed in any clinical practice guideline, and the treatment algorithms and flow charts did not include discontinuation. The quality of the clinical practice guidelines was overall low.
conclusionCurrent major clinical practice guidelines provide little support for clinicians wishing to help patients discontinue or taper antidepressants in terms of mitigating and managing withdrawal symptoms. Patients who have deteriorated upon following current guidance on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants thus cannot be concluded to have experienced a relapse. Better guidance requires better randomised trials investigating interventions for discontinuing or tapering antidepressants.
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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.