Withdrawal syndrome with antidepressants: what it is and what to do about it

Antidepressant drugs are among the most widely used in the world of psychiatry, but they are still substances whose use carries the risk of developing unwanted effects.

In fact, some people experience a problematic dependence on these drugs, which leads to withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking antidepressants. Let's see what to do to avoid these complications.

• Related article: "Types of antidepressants: characteristics and effects"

What are antidepressant drugs?

As their name suggests, antidepressants are drugs commonly used in the treatment of depressive disorders, and that are normally consumed orally in the form of pills. This class of psychopathologies are characterized by being accompanied by symptoms linked to low status mood and the inability to experience interest or incentives for the stimuli provided by the environment.

For example, it is common for people with major depression to spend most of their free time lying on the couch or in bed and have little or no social life. interested in participating in projects or any activity that is not mandatory (and in the most severe cases, difficulties in experiencing pleasure or feeling illusion about things give rise to constant thoughts of suicide, or directly to attempts to end one's life due to the feeling of hopelessness and unrest).

Thus, antidepressant drugs work by intervening in the patient's neural activation patterns, so that your brain does not remain so much in that state of "flattening" of the emotions and of little general activation. To do this, its active principles cross the blood-brain barrier to reach neuronal receptors, where these molecules are captured.

In short, the active principles of antidepressants compensate for the abnormal functioning of the brain and performing the tasks that in a person without depression they would be carried out by neurotransmitters (molecules used by the nervous system to that their neurons communicate with each other and that, for some reason, they are scarce or do not do their job properly in people with depression).

Now, the fit between antidepressants and the brains of people diagnosed with depressive disorders is not perfect. In fact, much is still unknown about their operation, and they are used because in many cases they help, although it is not known exactly why. They are not even used in all cases in which there is depression, nor only with psychological disorders of the depressive type: do not forget that the chemical interactions that occur in the brain are very complex and to some extent unpredictable.

It is because of that the consumption of these drugs is always accompanied by risks, for which it must be carried out under indication and medical assistance. Among these unwanted effects is withdrawal syndrome, a phenomenon that can also arise when trying to stop taking drugs taken outside the clinical context (tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, etc.).

• You may be interested in: "Types of neurotransmitters: functions and classification"

How is withdrawal syndrome with antidepressants?

By taking antidepressants for months, the brain adjusts to this situation by modifying its neural connections as if the drug were just another permanent element of the nervous system. In other words, as the active principle is present in the body every day, the body acts accordingly. However, this too goes hand in hand with the phenomenon known as tolerance: This "readjustment" implies that the effect of the drug after three months of taking it is weaker than the first day of taking the pill, at least if the same amount is consumed.

The B-side of this is that, upon termination or discontinuation of treatment, about a third of patients develop withdrawal syndrome: a set of symptoms associated with discomfort that appear because the brain is "missing" something. The most frequent and important symptoms are these:

• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Sexual dysfunctions
• Anxiety

Fortunately, withdrawal syndrome can appear in different degrees of intensity, and not all of them are very problematic. In addition, with medical supervision, it tends to disappear in a matter of two weeks: little by little, the nervous system becomes accustomed to the new situation, in the same way in which it adapted to the presence of drug.

In any case, the withdrawal syndrome is one of the reasons why it is essential to tell with medical supervision not only when taking an antidepressant psychotropic drug, but also when stopping take it. Usually, the withdrawal of this medicine is done gradually, so that the symptoms do not erupt with great intensity in the person's life.

Looking for addiction treatment?

If you want to have professional treatment for drug and psychotropic addiction problems, we invite you to contact us.

On CITA Clinics We specialize in offering therapy and health and psychological assistance for people with addictive disorders with or without substances. We offer outpatient care and also through income in our fully equipped residential module located in an environment full of nature. You will find us in Barcelona and in Dosrius (Mataró).