responselast verified 2026-09-21

Staying on your antidepressant: what the column got right, and what it left out

on 13 september 2026 a psychiatrist wrote in men’s health that stopping antidepressants has become fashionable, that withdrawal is usually mild, and that staying on is fine. we read it, checked every claim we could against the research, and looked up the author in the federal payment database. the short version: his core advice holds up, his withdrawal number is one of two, and the numbers he left out are the ones that would help you most.

what the column says

the author is a board-certified psychiatrist writing after the health secretary announced plans against “psychiatric overprescribing” and an expert panel began work on guidelines for discontinuing antidepressants.[1] his argument, in our words: antidepressants are among the most prescribed drugs because they work for most people with few severe side effects; the real crisis is access to care, not dependency; long-term use is a risk and benefit judgement; a quarter of people find a drug stops working and can switch; withdrawal affects about 15 percent of people and is nothing like heroin; and staying on an antidepressant that helps you is fine. throughout, he says the same thing we say: talk to your doctor before you stop.

what he got right

the best trial supports staying on

the column does not cite a trial for its central claim. there is one, and it is good. ANTLER enrolled 478 primary care patients in england who had been on an antidepressant for at least two years and felt well enough to stop. half kept taking it, half were switched to a matching placebo and tapered off. by 52 weeks, 39 percent of those who stayed on had relapsed. 56 percent of those who stopped had. the trial was funded by the uk’s public research body, not a drug company.[2] if you are doing well on an antidepressant and considering stopping because it feels like the fashionable thing to do, that is the number to weigh.

he is also right that the heroin comparison is wrong, that access is a bigger problem than dependency for many people, and that stopping abruptly is the one thing everyone agrees you should not do.

the four numbers he left out

1. his 15 percent is one of two answers

the column’s withdrawal figure comes from a 2024 meta-analysis in the lancet psychiatry.[3] it is a careful study of 79 trials and 21,002 people, and its headline is more interesting than the column lets on. 31 percent of people who stopped an antidepressant reported at least one withdrawal symptom. so did 17 percent of people who stopped a placebo. the authors subtract one from the other and call the drug-specific share about 15 percent, or one in six or seven. severe symptoms: about 3 percent on the drug, under 1 percent on placebo. the drugs most tied to symptoms were desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine and escitalopram.

a 2019 review by different authors, using 14 studies and mostly surveys of people who had actually stopped, found 56 percent, with almost half of those describing the worst severity offered, and symptoms often lasting more than the two weeks the guidelines then assumed.[4] the two reviews measure different things: short trials with planned tapers on one side, real-world stoppers on the other. neither is the whole answer. a column that gives you only the smaller one has picked a side without saying so.

2. “a mild flu for a couple of days” is not what the guideline says

the uk’s official guideline on medicines associated with withdrawal, NG215, says that coming off antidepressants “can be difficult, and may take several months or more,” that symptoms vary in kind and severity, and that the dose should be lowered in steps that get smaller near the end, not in equal cuts.[5] the column’s description of a short, mild, flu-like patch is true for many people. it is not what the guideline prepares you for, and the difference matters when you are deciding whether what you feel is withdrawal or relapse.

3. the trials behind the approval ran about eight weeks

the column says long-term safety “relies on weighing the risks and benefits” and that research has flipped back and forth. what it does not say is why: the trials that approved these drugs mostly ran six to twelve weeks, and the average person takes one for years. we listed the longest trial behind every antidepressant approval on its own page.[8] that is not an argument against the drugs. it is the honest size of the evidence for taking one for a decade.

4. one percent were told

in a survey of 1,829 people on antidepressants in new zealand, about one percent said they were told about withdrawal before they started, and about half reported withdrawal effects when they stopped.[6] the column ends by saying psychiatrists are good at helping people taper. the survey says the conversation usually never happened. both can be true, and the fix is a question at the first appointment, not the last.

who wrote it, and who pays him

our rule on every article about medication is to look up the author in the federal payment database, in both directions. dr brown is a psychiatrist in texas. we searched the open payments general and research files for 2021 through 2024 by his national provider number and found no payments from any drug or device company.[7] his research on pubmed is four papers: three federally funded studies of methamphetamine use and one case report, none about antidepressants. his public work is a self-help book and a men’s health column. so this is a clinician writing from his practice, not a paid position, and we say so as plainly as we would have said the opposite.

what to take from this

questions people ask

Is it safe to stay on an antidepressant long term?

The best randomised trial on the question, ANTLER, followed 478 primary care patients who felt well enough to stop. Over a year, 39% of those who stayed on relapsed and 56% of those who stopped did. That supports staying on for people who are doing well on it. Long-term physical effects are less settled, and the column says so too.

How common is antidepressant withdrawal?

Two reviews disagree. A 2024 meta-analysis of 79 studies found symptoms in 31% of people stopping an antidepressant and 17% stopping placebo, and put the drug-specific share at about 15%, with severe symptoms in about 3%. A 2019 review of 14 studies found 56%, with almost half of those calling it severe. The UK guideline says withdrawal can be difficult and may take several months or more.

Does the author of the Men’s Health column take drug company money?

Not on the federal record. We searched the Open Payments general and research files for 2021 to 2024 by his provider number and found no payments. His published research is federally funded addiction studies and one case report, none of it on antidepressants.

Should I stop my antidepressant?

That is a decision for you and your prescriber, and the column and this page agree on the one rule: never stop on your own. If you want to stop, ask for a taper plan with steps that get smaller near the end.

sources

  1. Brown GS. Staying on your antidepressant might be out of fashion, but it’s also totally OK. Men’s Health, 13 September 2026. https://www.menshealth.com/health/a73586007/why-staying-on-your-antidepressant-is-out-of-fashionand-also-radically-ok/
  2. Lewis G, et al. Maintenance or discontinuation of antidepressants in primary care (ANTLER). N Engl J Med. 2021;385:1257-1267. PMID 34587384. Funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34587384/
  3. Henssler J, et al. Incidence of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2024;11(7):526-535. PMID 38851198. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38851198/
  4. Davies J, Read J. A systematic review into the incidence, severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal effects: are guidelines evidence-based? Addict Behav. 2019;97:111-121. PMID 30292574. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30292574/
  5. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults. NG215, 2022. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng215
  6. Read J, Cartwright C, Gibson K. Adverse emotional and interpersonal effects reported by 1829 New Zealanders while taking antidepressants. Psychiatry Res. 2014;216(1):67-73. Library row veisund.com/r/53476. https://www.veisund.com/r/53476
  7. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Open Payments, general and research payment files, program years 2021 to 2024, queried by National Provider Identifier on 2026-09-21. https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/
  8. Trial length behind each antidepressant approval: veisund.com/topics/the-longest-trial-behind-each-approval. https://www.veisund.com/topics/the-longest-trial-behind-each-approval

adam