Revealed: How scores of patients taking antidepressants suffer such severe withdrawal symptoms they are hooked on them for life By Andy Beaven Published: 06:38 EDT, 16 June 2024 | Updated: 06:38 EDT, 16 June 2024 e-mail View comments It was the news that many had been waiting for. Earlier this month, world-renowned medical journal The Lancet published a study that 'proved' antidepressants were not as risky as feared. Reports prior to this suggested as many as half of patients suffered debilitating withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop taking the pills, including dizziness, headaches, nausea, insomnia and bizarre electric-shock-like 'brain zaps'.
But the new research claimed that just one in six patients suffered this, while only one in 35 experienced symptoms that could be described as severe. The most common type of antidepressants used on the NHS are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – SSRIs – which are thought to affect levels of serotonin, a chemical 'messenger' in the brain linked to mood, emotion and sleep 'The hysteria about antidepressant addiction was unwarranted,' commented Professor David Nutt, a mental health expert at Imperial College London and former Government adviser, on X/ Twitter . Meanwhile, in a Guardian newspaper article, Professor Carmine Pariante, a leading psychiatry expert at King's College London, claimed that 'the myth that antidepressants are addictive has been debunked'.
However, not all patients – or experts – agree. Some psychia.