People ‘hooked’ on antidepressants after two years

If you’ve been on antidepressants for more than two years, you could be hooked on them—because the withdrawal symptoms are so awful.

But if you haven’t been taking the drugs quite so long, you may well suffer only mild effects when you try to come off them, say researchers at University College London.

People who have been taking antidepressants longer than two years may find themselves hooked on them because the withdrawal symptoms are so nasty—and that applies to most users in the US, who on average have been on the drugs far longer than that.

The researchers surveyed 310 Britons who had at one point attempted to stop taking their prescribed antidepressant. Of these, 79 percent reported at least one withdrawal symptom and 45 percent experienced symptoms they classified as moderate or severe.

Across the entire group, 38 percent said they were unable to stop treatments because of withdrawal effects, and this rose to 79 percent among those who had been taking antidepressants for two years or more.

Withdrawal symptoms included anxiety, worsened mood, agitation and fatigue, along with depression and anxiety symptoms; 76 percent also reported physical reactions such as dizziness, headache, vertigo, or nausea.

The researchers found that the odds of experiencing any withdrawal effects were 10 times greater for those who had been on antidepressants for more than two years, compared to those who had been taking them for less than six months.

Withdrawal symptoms lasted for around three months, but around 10 percent of the participants said they were still suffering from them a year later.

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