All articles tagged with #tapering
Health Secretary Kennedy’s push to study and draft guidelines for deprescribing SSRIs follows widespread withdrawal stories, with experts advocating hyperbolic tapering to account for drug half-lives; clinicians warn against undermining necessary treatment, while patient experiences highlight the long, challenging process of stopping antidepressants.
Vox’s Future Perfect explainer argues that long-term SSRI use raises questions about ongoing need, with withdrawal and dependence being real but distinct from addiction. It emphasizes careful, individualized tapering when stopping, notes that best tapering protocols are not yet established, and urges empathetic clinician guidance and more deprescribing research to help people decide whether to stay on meds or discontinue.
A small Scripps Health study followed 30 patients who reduced their GLP-1 medications after reaching weight-loss plateaus. Many kept their BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar improvements with dosing as infrequent as about every two weeks, though a few regained some weight. While promising for reducing treatment burden and costs, the findings are preliminary and require larger randomized trials to confirm generalizability.
A doctor shares his personal experience and discusses the complexities of stopping antidepressants, particularly SSRIs, highlighting the need for personalized tapering methods and better understanding of withdrawal symptoms to improve mental health treatment.
Bella Mackie shares her personal experience with long-term use of antidepressants, the challenges of tapering off SSRIs, and the lack of adequate information and support from healthcare providers about withdrawal symptoms, highlighting the need for better guidance and awareness.
A study finds that longer use of antidepressants is linked to more severe, longer-lasting withdrawal symptoms, especially after more than two years of use, highlighting the need for careful discontinuation strategies and updated clinical guidelines.
Outro Health, a US telehealth startup launched in seven states, offers a guided, hyperbolic tapering program to help people safely discontinue antidepressants, addressing the challenges of withdrawal and the growing demand for mental health support. The service pairs patients with clinicians and uses custom compounded drugs to facilitate gradual dose reduction, aiming to improve the withdrawal experience and promote informed de-prescribing.
Gretchen Walsh led the Virginia Cavaliers to an NCAA title in the 200 medley relay with a record-breaking 50 back swim, emphasizing that their consistent tapering approach between ACC and NCAA Championships has been successful for her. She explained that they incorporate a week of hard work after ACCs before tapering down for NCAAs, highlighting their dedication to not taking the easy way out.
A doctor who has been taking semaglutide drug Ozempic for a year to lose weight is trying a "maintenance dose" approach to avoid regaining weight after stopping the medication. He believes that tapering off the medication slowly could help the body adjust to its new size and metabolism. While there are no established best practices for coming off Ozempic, doctors suggest tapering and adding other weight-management medications to avoid rapid rebound issues with GLP-1s.
Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms can last for weeks, months, or even years, and are often misinterpreted as a relapse in depression. Guidelines now recommend tapering off antidepressants over months and sometimes years down to very low doses. The approach to tapering recommended by these updated guidelines is called “hyperbolic tapering”. It is based on the fact that very small doses of antidepressants have very large effects on the brain. This technique can help people who were previously not able to stop their medication with traditional approaches to safely stop it.