Am posting this because so many members have written about their awful experiences quitting anti-depressants. If nothing else, maybe it will help to validate your experiences (not that it should be needed). The Covid reference might be misleading or irrelevant.
Hopefully the article will be of some interest, possibly even help.
Covid has led to record levels of antidepressant use – but withdrawal can be difficult
David Taylor
I know from personal experience that coming off these medications can be horrible. I also researched ways to make it easier
• Prof David Taylor is director of pharmacy and pathology at the south London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust
Antidepressants are the only treatment available in the new NICE guideline for Primary Chronic Pain. This new guidance was forced on NICE from the WHO. I watched a zoom meeting recently regarding this new guidance, horrified as you can imagine that anyone who describes a primary chronic pain to the GP is only to receive antidepressants, which Prof David Taylor in this article doesn’t mention.
Not sure if the guidance was out before the article.
The recommended antidepressants for primary chronic pain include sertraline, which impedes thyroid hormones. Unintended consequences obviously not understood by WHO or NICE.
And something else that never gets mentioned (in the rush to prescribe antidepressants for all ills) is that many of them don’t play well with NSAIDs like ibuprofen.
So, you’re already in chronic pain, alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen all day long just for some relief and your doctor puts you on Sertraline. The patient information leaflet is clear—taking ibuprofen and Sertraline together is contraindicated—from memory, it’s something to do with blood thinning/clotting ability. One of the few painkillers that isn’t contraindicated is paracetamol. But if you’ve been leaning heavily on taking ibuprofen as well to get you through, what are you supposed to do then?
I just don’t buy the rhetoric. Is there any decent evidence to suggest that antidepressants really do relieve chronic pain??
But I know that isn’t what your post was about so I’ll stop banging on about it.
In the zoom meeting it was suggested that antidepressants are better at dealing with chronic primary pain than pain killers. A member of the NICE committee that compiled the guidance was a member of the panel in the zoom.
I’m aware of the oxycodone/opioid problem in America and feel that all pain killers have been targeted in a knee jerk reaction, however, we were assured that antidepressants do indeed work better in primary chronic pain.
That's really awful, to prescribe anti-d's for pain relief.
We'll have a nation of people who maybe not be able to withdraw from them and then WHAT. Will they lose their livelihoods or have problems within their families.
I can assure you that antidepressants do nothing for chronic pain. The NICE guidelines are flawed. I was already on them when my chronic pain began & that was nearly 17 years ago. I was finally ‘diagnosed’ with fibromyalgia which (later) Dr Skinner did not accept. I am not even sure that antidepressants don’t make the pain worse. I tried to come off them when I started NDT, as I felt so much better & succeeded without too many side effects, but then big pharma started messing around with my NDT (Nature Throid). I am now on Erfa & the chronic pain is as bad as it’s ever been. I am on the antidepressant Duloxetine. I am a full-time carer & am totally shattered by the end of the day, but then can’t sleep as the pain keeps me awake. The GP stopped my Amitriptyline (which DID help as it relaxes muscles) & put me on Mirtazapine instead . I slept like a log for a month, but it doesn’t work anymore. The (new) GP now wants to talk to me ‘about my thyroid results’. They would only do TSH!! I’m not sure I have the energy to explain about suppressed TSH on NDT as I know he won’t believe me.
They only take notice of the TSH and fail to know that it is from the pituitary gland and TSH begins to rise when our thyroid gland begins to fail. Rarely are FT4 and FT3 tested.
Thank you. I have yet to meet the new GP. I used to get my thyroid meds from Dr Myhill and that’s gone pear-shaped too now since she has had to stop prescribing. Thankfully I have found a private endocrinologist, who seems happy to prescribe for the time being.
It must be awful to have withdrawal symptoms when you've been trying to alleviate another problem.
I remember being given something for pain relief and I was collapsing all over the place. It was scary and had to call for an ambulance several times.
I was always discharged from A&E.
It wasn't until someone phoned me (from the USA) and told me to stop taking them as there was lots of negative publicity on TV about this product by the people who swallowed it.
Apparently many, many hundreds of people were also complaining.
The side effects of antidepressant withdrawal can be terrible. From my own experience I stopped abruptly once when I'd managed to run out of medication (never again!) This was some years ago but felt very ill and not able to function.
When I tried properly to stop taking them some time later, I titrated down my dose very slowly over a year and a half. Though as the article states it is difficult to do this hyperbolic tapering when you start getting to the smaller doses.
I did find that the side effects were much lessened and it was achievable but over a long timescale. Unfortunately I ended up back on medication again after an episode of mental ill health.
The over reliance of GP's prescribing antidepressants is something I don't understand; though it seems to be their preferred option when a patient presents with a multitude of problems that they for whatever reason are unable to treat.
I have experienced a dulling down of my senses on some antidepressants but not sure how much that would help treat chronic pain?
I genuinely fear for those that suffer chronic pain if a prescription for antidepressants is all that the general practitioner will have to offer them!
So, take an anti-depressant you probably don't need, and you're at risk of ending up with side effects that make you even more depressed.
A round of applause, please, for the people involved in doing such a spectacularly bad job, that also ranks as one of the most callous bits of work I've ever seen from the NHS.
I read a description of the people on the committee for creating the chronic pain guidelines on a different forum. There was a link to their actual names and positions, but surprise, surprise, that link no longer exists.
So there’s 3 psychologists / psychiatrists on the committee (including the Chair), and another 2 co-opted psychologists / psychiatrists (including an “addiction specialist psychiatrist”!) , a few consultants working in NHS pain clinics including one for “pain transformation”, a couple of GPs, a rheumatologist, nurse, physio OT. And two lay members.
And then just one person qualified in clinical pharmacology.
It’s scary how routinely doctors are prescribing anti depressants and the after care is abysmal.
It seems the drugs simply numb the patient out and get rid of various symptoms and basically the doctors get rid of a problem patient. How many thyroid patients are being offered anti depressants instead of thyroid hormone they need? It’s easier and cheaper and no need for blood tests, problem solved!
I’ve heard similar arguments about cannabis-based drugs which simply numb the patient and/or give a small “high” to mask the real illness which remains untreated.
Getting off anti depressants is very very difficult, a friend of mine is a therapist and sees it daily.
Is there a connection between anti depressant use and absorption problems with thyroid hormone? I’m from a family of hypos and one of my relatives is on an anti depressant and thyroxine, I wonder if it’s interfering with her hormones.
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