Posted by SLS on October 22, 2006, at 11:35:49
In reply to Re: Withdrawal from long term antidepressants » SLS, posted by joslynn on October 20, 2006, at 9:31:38
> SLS, here is a question I have wondered about: As a general rule, how many weeks or months off a med until a person can conclude that depressed feelings are a recurrence of the original problem vs. withdrawal?
I wrote something off the top of my head here:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20060809/msgs/693383.html
It makes some sense. I think the main thing is to watch for a trend.
I would like nothing better than to be able to live healthy and without the need for medication. I can certainly understand anyone wanting to experiment to establish whether or not they truly need medication or not. I guess it is a gamble of sorts. There is a risk that the same drug will not work as well once it is restarted. I don't think I would wait longer than 2 months if a depression is getting worse and not better.
I wish I could present you with something more definitive in the way of studies demonstrating the course of relapse versus withdrawal depression. I don't think it has been formally investigated.
One thing that I did read years ago is that for people who have chronic or recurrent depression, relapse usually occurs within 4 months of drug discontinuation. So, I guess if this has happened after two successive attempts to discontinue medication, one must consider indefinite treatment.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:689668
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/wdrawl/20061010/msgs/696731.html