Patient has been taking antidepressant therapy during 5 weeks or more. His\her physician decided to change dose or discontinue medicine intake. Default, 10mg increments of dose are usually recommended.

After that one can experience severe symptoms. Headache, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, cold fit, dizziness and fatigue, insomnia, agitation, impaired concentration, vivid dreams, depersonalization, irritability and suicidal thoughts are the most be widespread symptoms of withdrawal syndrome. Abovementioned symptoms can vary in wide range in intensity (from a total absence of to very severe) and time duration (from one to seven weeks) in different people.

It is induced with decreasing dosage or discontinuing of antidepressant medications. This phenomenon is known as SSRI discontinuation syndrome. It can become real Gehenna for the human creature.

One of its reasons is very short half-life of some SSRI medications. Very short half-life leads to absence of active metabolites that can help the drug to stay in the body for a long term. Such medications go in, last a few hours, and are excreted.

SSRIs are divided on two categories depending on their half-life: long acting and short acting. Prozac is a longer-acting SSRI while Paxil, Effexor, Zoloft and Luvox are short-acting. Decreasing dosage or discontinuing SSRIs with shorter half-life cause so-called anticholinergic rebound. That rebound is defined by an interruption in production of the key neurotransmitter acetylcholine which is used more when a person is under greater stress. The duration time of those symptoms varies in range from 1 to 7 weeks.

    Symptoms of SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome

    • Neurologic symptoms include:

    • Dizziness;
    • Vertigo;
    • Light headedness;
    • Difficulty walking

    • Somatic (bodily) complaints include:

    • Nausea/vomiting;
    • Fatigue;
    • Headaches;
    • Insomnia

    • Less common difficulties:

    • Shock-like sensations;
    • Parasthesia (skin crawling, burning or prickling);
    • Visual disturbances;
    • Diarrhea;
    • Muscle pain;
    • Cold fit

    • Non-specific mental symptoms:

    • Shock-like sensations;
    • Agitation;
    • Impaired concentration;
    • Vivid dreams;
    • Depersonalization – sense of unreality and loss of self;
    • Irritability;
    • Suicidal thoughts

It was found out due to some double-blind controlled studies that 35-78% of patients who, after five weeks or more of treatment with the medication, abruptly had discontinued certain antidepressants or used 10mg increments or more, experienced one or more of the withdrawal symptoms. When antidepressant therapy had been renewed abstinency’s symptoms severity were ranged from mild-moderate in most patients, to extremely distressing in a small amount and have been lasting from one to seven weeks