The consequences of suddenly stopping depression medication

Depression is a relatively common mental illness. It takes a relatively long time for patients with depression to take medication, and some patients even need lifelong medication. If patients with depression suddenly stop taking medication, it often causes relatively large side effects, which may lead to some adverse mental and emotional reactions. For patients with depression, medication cannot be stopped suddenly.

The consequences of suddenly stopping depression medication

Reactions after stopping depression medication Antidepressants are not addictive; however, stopping such drugs may indeed cause a series of withdrawal reactions. Common symptoms include dizziness, impaired balance, headache, nausea, insomnia, vivid dreams, etc. Some patients may also experience numbness, electric shock, personality disintegration and irritability, and even visual and auditory hallucinations. 53 antidepressant discontinuation symptoms were identified, the most common of which was dizziness; other researchers divided the main SSRI discontinuation reactions into six categories, namely sensory symptoms, balance disorders, general somatic symptoms, emotional symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms and sleep disorders.

Discontinuation reactions not only cause discomfort to patients, but may also be mistaken for a relapse of the disease, a physical illness, or the side effects of a new antidepressant, thereby interfering with treatment. Among them, expectant mothers, newborns and the elderly need special attention.

Pharmacological characteristics of antidepressants

Understanding the pharmacology of different antidepressants can help explain discontinuation symptoms. Studies have shown that the speed of discontinuation and the duration of treatment are key factors in predicting the discontinuation response of antidepressants. For SSRIs, the decrease in 5-HT energy caused by abrupt discontinuation of the drug can lead to discontinuation symptoms, and the NE and DA systems may also be involved. In addition, some new antidepressants, such as melatonin MT1/2 receptor agonists and 5-HT receptor antagonists agomelatine, although their half-lives are also relatively short, basically do not cause withdrawal reactions. This phenomenon is also worth exploring.

The biological mechanism of antidepressant withdrawal reactions is still controversial; the current basic consensus is that any antidepressant may cause withdrawal symptoms, which are more common with TCAs, MAOIs and SSRIs, especially those with higher potency and shorter half-life, such as paroxetine in SSRIs and venlafaxine in SNRIs.