WITHDRAWAL EFFECTS. People should never stop any antidepressant
abruptly, as almost all have withdrawal effects in some people. Effexor and
Paxil seem to be the worst in this regard, though the others are right
behind. The most common withdrawal effects are extreme agitation and
exacerbation of depression.
When antidepressants are working correctly, people usually don’t feel
them, they just feel better. Sometimes they’ll stop taking the medication
because they don’t think it’s doing anything. Bad idea. Sudden cessation
can bring on a dramatic increase in symptoms.
The usual course of antidepressant treatment is six to eight months
for a single depressive episode. At the end of that time, tapering off should
be done with a doctor’s supervision. Generally, people who have had
repeated episodes or chronic depression stay on the medication longer,
perhaps even for life.
DIMINISHED EFFECTIVENESS. Sometimes SSRIs simply stxop working
for no apparent reason. Usually this happens after about a year of treat-
ment, but it can be sooner. The diminished effectiveness is often less
apparent to the person taking the medication than to family and friends.
Switching medications can usually restore the antidepressant effect.
There are horror stories in addition to these. Most have occurred
when the prescriber did not follow the course of treatment closely enough,
and especially when the agitation persisted beyond several days.
After checking out the Websites on Prozac, Kinesha decides to
go with something safer and more organic. She begins taking St.
John’s wort with valerian and kava kava.St. John’s Wort
I’ll cut right to the chase here. I have never known St. John’s wort or any
other herbal preparation sold over the counter to be an effective treatment
for clinical depression. I know that St. John’s wort is popular in Germany,
but even there it is used primarily for milder depressions. Many of the
equivalency studies that compare St. John’s wort to other antidepressants
tend to stack the deck by using a lower than recommended dose of the
prescription medications.
Explosions into Sadness ❧ 163