July 9, 2025

Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms – what are they and how common are they? A systematic review and meta-analysis

There has been long-standing public and clinical debate over the frequency and severity of antidepressant withdrawal symptoms. Some reviews have argued they are common, severe, and often mistaken for relapse.

We invited journalists to the SMC last summer to hear details of a German meta-analysis of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms which suggested that one in six people experience one or more discontinuation symptoms when coming off antidepressants.

UK researchers have also been looking into this, with more of a focus on the nature of the discontinuation symptoms. This is particularly important in helping clinicians and patients identify them and to distinguish them from relapse. This analysis, published in JAMA Psychiatry, looked at additional RCT data as well as unpublished data from 11 trials which have never been included in a systematic review on this topic. It helps provide new insight into the specific type of discontinuation symptoms experienced, whether they vary by antidepressant, and is able to unpick which symptoms are most likely to be associated with antidepressant discontinuation.

The authors were at the SMC to explain their findings, how they fit into previous work on this topic, and discuss the clinical implications.

Speakers included:

Michail Kalfas, Research Assistant, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London

Dr Sameer Jauhar, Clinical Reader in Affective Disorders and Psychosis, Division of Psychiatry Imperial College London

Professor Allan Young, Head of Division and Clinical Chair in Academic Psychiatry, Imperial College London

Dr Gemma Lewis, Associate Professor in Epidemiology & Applied Clinical Research, University College London

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of comments.