Posted by catachrest on August 2, 2003, at 23:13:33
In reply to Re: effexor withdrawal IS FINE, posted by catachrest on July 30, 2003, at 12:44:24
Hi there,
For anyone who's interested, here's a summary of the article in the July/August issue of Psychology Today titled "Are Antidepressants Addictive?" (sub: Claims that Drug Withdrawl leads to Illness) I'll be as thorough as possible while skirting copyright law. :)
The pain/nausea felt by some patients when they discontinue antidepressants is causing controversy regarding whether they should have explicit warning labels about withdrawl.
They cite the case of Jame Tierney, who at 14 started taking Effexor and experienced violent withdrawl symptoms (vomiting, suicidal impulses, electric shock-like symptoms, fatigue) when she tapered off.
They then say that often such withdrawal is mistaken as just a relapse of depression, but more people like Jame are coming forward to say that they were prescribed SNRIs and SSRIs such as Prozac and Zoloft, and this could put the spotlight on this phenomenon, which, the article says, doctors have recognized since the late 90s.
Apparently the most problems are reported by patients on Effexor and Paxil because of the short half-lives of the drugs.
"Some experts estimate 50 to 80 per cent of patients experience withdrawal from Paxil when they go cold turkey, but this number is controversial." They quote a Jonathan Alpert (MD PhD) who is asst. professor of psychiatry at Harvard, who says that though there are no definitive estimates, he believes that the number could be less than 5 per cent for those who taper off gradually. He also says that withdrawal like jame describes are very rare even for those who stop suddenly. "'The great majority of patients who stop their antidepressants abruptly get away with it.'"
They then cite Dr. Davil L Dunner MD, the director of the Centre for Anxiety and Depression at U of Washington, who says that studies show less than 25 per cent of patients who stop Paxil have any symptoms.
Paxil and Effexor now both have labels which warn or "discontinuation" but there are those who say that that's not enough - notably Lawyer Karen Barth, who is bringing a lawsuit representing 35 patients in California, and whose firm has heard from about 10,000 Paxil patients.
They then mention Joseph Glenmullen, MD, who wrote "Prozac Backlash" and who sees a "potential crisis" if antidepressant withdrawal should become widely recognized. [though they don't follow that up adequately to my mind]
He says that "thousands and thousands" of people have had their SSRI withdrawal symptoms misinterpreted as a relapse into depression, and advocates that patients have therapy in addition to tapering off so that a relapse can be distinguished if that's the case.
Well, that's all she wrote. The article was by Tiffany Kary and appears on page 15.
poster:catachrest
thread:13781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030802/msgs/247696.html