How long antidepressant withdrawal

This article discusses discontinuation symptoms and explains how people can reduce any symptoms they may experience while coming off antidepressants.

Individuals may experience one or more of the following when coming off antidepressants:. Symptoms may appear within 2 days of stopping antidepressant use and persist for several weeks. In a review of existing research, the authors noted that it is not uncommon for people to have antidepressant withdrawal symptoms for many weeks or even months.

Drugs with a short half-life typically cause more withdrawal symptoms than those with a long half-life. Some popular antidepressants, and their approximate half-lives , are:. Another influencing factor is the length of time someone has been taking antidepressants. The longer a person has been taking the medication, the more likely they are to have withdrawal symptoms.

All antidepressants can cause withdrawal issues if someone has taken them for longer than 6 weeks , particularly if they stop or rapidly reduce their dose. If someone has mood-related symptoms following antidepressant withdrawal, it does not always mean a relapse. To differentiate between withdrawal symptoms and relapse, a person should consider the following two things.

First is the time of onset. Discontinuation symptoms appear shortly after coming off antidepressants, whereas relapse symptoms develop gradually, sometimes several weeks later.

Second is how symptoms change over time. Discontinuation symptoms reduce as the body adjusts to the removal of antidepressant medication. Conversely, in a relapse, the depressive symptoms continue or get worse. Individuals who wish to come off antidepressants should discuss this with their doctor before making any medication changes. With discontinuation syndrome, the symptoms eventually go away, usually within one to three weeks. But if you're having a relapse of your depression or anxiety, the symptoms don't go away and may even get worse.

Additionally, if you start an antidepressant again, discontinuation symptoms will resolve quickly, but depression or anxiety will take longer to respond. Here are some tips to help you avoid discontinuation syndrome and get relief if it does happen to you. Certain antidepressants, such as Effexor venlafaxine , leave your system quickly and therefore are more likely to cause withdrawal symptoms. This can happen even when you're simply a little late taking your regular dose. If you happen to forget your antidepressant, it's OK to go ahead and take it as soon as you realize you missed it.

The exception is if it's close to your next scheduled dose; in that case, wait until then and get back on track. Let's say you're taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor SSRI but it isn't working very well for you, or it's causing side effects that you can't live with.

Rather than stopping it cold turkey and potentially causing discontinuation syndrome, talk to your doctor about switching to another medication, especially if you haven't been on it for long. Prozac fluoxetine , for example, has a very long half-life , meaning that after you stop taking it, it leaves your body more slowly than most other SSRIs. For this reason, you're unlikely to have extreme withdrawal symptoms with Prozac.

In fact, you should be able to easily go straight from Prozac fluoxetine to any other antidepressant except for one in the class of monoamine oxidase inhibitors MAOIs.

These medications have more safety concerns and potentially have more side effects than the newer drugs, so it's unlikely your doctor would put you on one unless trials of other antidepressants have not been adequately effective. If you and your doctor have decided it's time for you to stop taking your antidepressant, it's possible to avoid discontinuation syndrome altogether.

Even if you're tempted to, the key is to not quit all of a sudden, but instead to taper off your medication. Tapering means gradually decreasing your dose over an extended period of time. How you'll do this will depend on how long you've been taking the drug, how high your dose is if you're on a low dose you'll be able to taper off more quickly , and any other factors your doctor may consider. Sometimes, even if you are slow and deliberate when weaning yourself off an antidepressant, you still may experience symptoms of discontinuation syndrome.

One possible way to get relief is to take a dose of Prozac fluoxetine along with medications like Zoloft sertraline and Lexapro escitalopram that you are trying to taper. Your symptoms will likely go away within a few hours. And because of Prozac's long half-life, it will help smooth out the taper. Ask your doctor about this option if your symptoms are bothersome.

If you were on a very high dose of Paxil paroxetine or Effexor venlafaxine , you may need to take repeated doses of Prozac.

Benadryl diphenhydramine is an over-the-counter allergy medication that has been reported to help with discontinuation symptoms too, though it has a sedating effect. Talk to your doctor before you stop taking antidepressants.

It's important that you do not stop taking antidepressants suddenly. A dose of antidepressants should be slowly reduced, normally over 4 weeks, but sometimes longer. Antidepressants: Can they stop working? Antidepressants: Side effects Antidepressants: Selecting one that's right for you Antidepressants: Which cause the fewest sexual side effects?

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