Antidepressants prove addictive to some – Yahoo! News

Can antidepressants be addictive? Depending on how you define addiction — increasing doses needed to get the same effect and horrible withdrawal symptoms if you try and discontinue use — then yes, they can.

Overwhelmed by nausea and uncontrollable crying, she felt she had no choice but to start taking the pills again. More than a year later the Michigan woman still takes Paxil, and expects to be on it for the rest of her life.

In the almost two decades since Prozac — the first of the antidepressants known as SRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors — hit the market, a number of patients have reported extreme reactions to discontinuing the drugs. Two of the best-selling antidepressants — Effexor and Paxil — have led to so many complaints that some doctors avoid prescribing them altogether.

The sad part is that one-third of psychiatrists surveyed didn’t know about the unpleasant effects of discontinuing many types of antidepressants. Worse yet, “so little is known about it that researchers aren’t even exactly sure what causes the symptoms.”

Not really the kind of thing that gives you the warm fuzzies if you’re contemplating discontinuing an SSRI antidepressant.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 8 Aug 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.