Evidence / 2019
Tapering of SSRI treatment to mitigate withdrawal symptoms
Horowitz MA, Taylor D (2019). The Lancet Psychiatry.
- Population
- People stopping SSRI antidepressants
- Sample
- Personal View / review (not a trial sample)
- Condition
- Antidepressant discontinuation
- Medication focus
- SSRIs
- Jurisdiction
- United Kingdom
- Last reviewed
- 1 September 2026
- PMID
- 30850328
- DOI
- 10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30032-X
Plain-language finding
Reviews evidence that SSRI discontinuation symptoms can occur, that receptor occupancy falls steeply at lower doses, and that short tapers recommended in some guidelines may be too rapid for some people. Proposes hyperbolic tapering as a physiologically informed approach.
Important limitation
This is a Personal View, not a randomised trial of a specific taper schedule. Paradoxical.life does not provide individual tapering schedules. The paper is cited because it shaped the clinical conversation about how antidepressants are stopped, not because it is a dosing protocol.
Why we cite this
Influential review of why antidepressant cessation is a medication event, and why tapering is often recommended.
antidepressant · ssri · tapering · discontinuation
Early studies exist. Findings may be heterogeneous, samples small, or mechanisms still under investigation. Replication is limited.
Claims this source supports
Stopping or reducing many antidepressants can be followed by discontinuation symptoms in a substantial minority of people. Estimates of how often this happens vary widely by study method. Withdrawal is not the same as addiction, and it is not automatically the same as relapse.
This claim retains disagreement in the literature. Open the classification to read both sides.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
For many antidepressants, staged dose reduction is commonly recommended rather than abrupt cessation. Paradoxical.life does not provide an individual tapering schedule.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026