2024-03-02 09:43:00
He has been addicted to antidepressant medications and now helps others get off them. Mark Horowitz is a neurobiologist, based in London. In 2015, he decided to stop his treatment, which he had been taking for 15 years. “It completely turned my life upside down,” he told the BBC. I would wake up in the morning in complete panic, as if I were being chased by an animal.” His symptoms lasted all day, until late at night, and became more debilitating than those that had led him to take antidepressants years before.
Antidepressants: what are the withdrawal symptoms?
According to this specialist, almost half of people who stop taking antidepressants experience withdrawal symptoms. “For some people, withdrawal symptoms are debilitating and prolongedspecifies the researcher in an article published in The Conversation written with two other scientists, Joanna Moncrieff and Katharine Wallis. Symptoms may include dizziness, headaches, memory and concentration problems, emotional disturbances and neurological symptoms such as sensitivity to noise and light, muscle spasms and sexual dysfunction.
The longer the medications are taken, the stronger and more persistent the withdrawal effects. “People often misinterpret these symptoms as a return of their mental health problem, that is to say a relapse, they note. Doctors, too, are often unaware of the extent to which withdrawal symptoms can be frequent and serious and often confuse them with a relapse.” This confusion can lead to diagnostic errors and inappropriate treatment.
Why are antidepressants addictive?
However, these withdrawal symptoms appear because the brain adapts to taking antidepressants. “This is often called physical dependence,” they elaborate. “Dependence occurs even if antidepressants do not get people high or cause cravings or compulsions, which is the technical definition of dependence .” When stopping, the brain feels a lack of the drug it has become accustomed to and withdrawal symptoms appear. The length of symptoms corresponds to the time it takes for the brain to adjust to the absence of the drug.
How to reduce withdrawal symptoms following stopping antidepressants?
Faced with his own experience of stopping, Mark Horowitz is surprised that little research has been carried out on withdrawal when taking antidepressants, while there is numerous work on these treatments. “For me, this amounts to allowing the sale of cars without brakes,” he told the BBC.
In 2021, it developed a pilot program in London to help people on antidepressants stop their treatment. This protocol is based on a so-called hyperbolic reduction: it consists of greatly reducing the treatment at the start, then making very small reductions followingwards, because scientists have noted that low doses of antidepressants have very significant effects on the brain. In his clinic, he supports around twenty people as they stop treatment. In mid-February, he published a “de-prescription” guide for health professionals, published only in English.
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