There is increasing evidence that antidepressant withdrawal symptoms (or ‘discontinuation’ symptoms) are common and can be severe and long-lasting.

Yet in the past, these symptoms and have often been mistaken, by both doctors and patients, for relapse of some underlying and as yet untreated mental illness.

As Therapeutic Guidelines state: “Advise the patient of the potential for discontinuation symptoms because patients may misinterpret these as a recurrence of their psychiatric disorder.”

Misinterpretation can lead to mismanagement with reinstating, or switching, and continuing antidepressants long-term (longer than 12-months).