The Antidepressant Solution: A Step-By-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and Addiction

by Joseph Glenmullen

Book Overview

With the FDA's warning that antidepressants may cause agitation, anxiety, hostility, and even violent or suicidal tendencies, these medications are at the forefront of national legal news. Harvard physician Joseph Glenmullen has led the charge to warn the public that antidepressants are overprescribed, underregulated, and, especially, misunderstood in their side and withdrawal effects. Now he offers a solution

More than twenty million Americans...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074326973X
• ISBN13: 9780743269735
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Courageous and Important Work

Did you know that antidepressant dose reduction and discontinuation can cause severe and debilitating withdrawal reactions? While 10% of the US population are taking antidepressants, most people, including most doctors, have never heard of antidepressant addiction and withdrawal. Glenmullen does a fine job getting the word out about this urgent health crisis. In 2004 Congress had to force the FDA and drug manufacturers to acknowledge the well-established link between antidepressant use and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Glenmullen shows how severe withdrawal symptoms, which can occur within hours of a missed dose, can actually drive a person to suicide. Many face a horrible dilemma when their withdrawal symptoms are misdiagnosed as relapse. Glenmullen must be applauded for taking on his own colleagues, some of whom have accepted huge fees from the drug companies to suppress and misrepressent the severity of antidepressant "discontinuation syndrome." Numerous misdeeds are revealed in Glenmullen's astute analysis, but the book's primary purpose is not critical. He presents a detailed 5 step method for helping those who want or need to stop taking these drugs. The good news, according to Glenmullen, is that patients are "almost always" able to wean off these drugs if the dose is reduced gradually (according to each individual's tolerance) with the vigilant care of a knowledgable doctor who is willing to put in the many weeks, sometimes many months, required. To his credit, Glenmullen explores the limits to his method in the story of Andy, a 16 year old boy, who after a month on Effexor, decided he wanted off, but had to spend a whole year of his young life in hell caught between the side effects and severe withdrawal, despite a painfully slow dose reduction. Glenmullen would like to believe such reactions are rare, but what if they're not? Just because some people can reduce gradually with few problems, does not prove all people can. I am one like Andy. I too took Effexor. I spent 4 months reducing gradually and became so sick and debilitated, I had to quit my job. It's now been 10 weeks since I took my last dose and I am still too sick to function. I'm worried I may have been permanently damaged by this drug. I'm not depressed, but I have considered suicide. I'm a 53 year old woman with no husband or family to support me financially. If I had known when I started this drug 10 years ago that I could become this sick when I gradually reduced and discontinued it, I never would have taken it--but I couldn't have known 10 years ago because back then, the drug companies denied the existence of antidepressant withdrawal and deliberated suppressed and misrepresented the truth. They can't deny it any longer. Babies are being born addicted to Effexor. Their mothers may have known of the dangers, they may have tried to stop, but they couldn't because the withdrawal was too much to bear. These mothers were addicted by

This Book Could Save Your Life

Review by Rosie Meysenburg This is a well-written book that concentrates on how to discontinue the new antidepressants {SSRIs} safely. The book also includes guidelines for discontinuing the older antidepressants. There is a step by step guide for the correct method of discontinuing these drugs. Dr. Glenmullen also has Charts which explain the difference between "withdrawal" symptoms and the actual return of depression/anxiety, etc. This is a must read for everyone who has wished they could get off their antidepressant but has been stymied in their attempt.

A practical guide for any interested in getting away

Early last year the FDA issued warnings about the dangers of antidepressant use in both adults and teens: Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen has studied the use of antidepressants for much of his career, has prescribed them for patients, and in his The Antidepressant Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide To Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, And "Addiction" reveals further dangers of such drugs. So how can patients decrease dependency and danger? From changing doses to tapering off completely, chapters provide a logical program, not just a caution, making it a practical guide for any interested in getting away from antidepressant use.

A very welcome aid

Reading this book gave me a platform for understanding the tangled web of a family member's dire straits. I passed it on to her after I finished it and she is now happily AD free. It should be required reading for anyone prescribing or taking Antidepressants. This book does what a great book should do: educates and informs the reader while creating a potential for monumental societal change. I urge you to read it.

An extremely important book!

Dr. Glenmullen's book is a critically important and useful guide for those taking antidepressant drugs. The FDA has finally accknowledged the dangers associated with SSRI drugs and issued a "Black Box Warning" -- their strongest warning for a drug short of banning it. Antidepressant manufacturers have oversold the benefits of these drugs and downplayed the risks. Individuals that suddenly stop taking SSRI drugs are at extreme risk. These drugs must be tapered gradually. Dr. Glenmullen's book is extremely well written and is an important resource to people taking SSRI drugs.