While many of us associate withdrawal with stopping things like cigarettes, heroin, or sleeping pills, we may not realize that commonly used prescription drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, indigestion, and depression have withdrawal effects that can range from mild rebound symptoms to life-threatening crises.
For example, when stopping a proton-pump inhibitor like omeprazole for indigestion, there is a rebound of acid production in the stomach that can cause indigestion far worse than the original symptoms. This can be just a temporary rebound effect or something more prolonged – see Getting Off Proton Pump Inhibitors. Mild or severe, it can be mistaken to mean that the person still needs the drug. Similarly, stopping diuretics abruptly can cause rebound edema.
In some cases, stopping antidepressants can cause such severe physical and psychological withdrawal effects that it is impossible for the person to ever stop the drug completely. Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms are frequently misdiagnosed as the return of the original illness.
There can be long-term problems after stopping some prescription drugs, which can persist for years. It can take 5 to 6 years after stopping to come fully back to normal. Symptoms can range from mild and easily managed to horrifying and life-changing disability.
Every patient should have this information before he or she makes the decision to start a medication. We are very good at starting drugs but not as good at stopping them. This is why we encourage people to come to RxISK and look up a drug before filling their prescription. If you have concerns, you can then have a more informed conversation with your doctor or pharmacist before you start something you may not be able to stop easily or quickly.
It is especially important for women of child-bearing age who may not have the luxury of time to successfully wean themselves off a prescription drug before trying to start a family. In an age where many women will abstain from alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soft cheeses, or uncooked meats if they are thinking about becoming pregnant, would they consent to taking a prescription drug if they knew the risk of birth defects or of becoming hooked?
Stopping a medication can also cause positive effects. Stopping can make you aware of how much better you feel off a drug that was causing problems you didn’t recognize at the time. This is a powerful way to uncover drug side effects.
For some patients, especially older patients, the burden of the side effects of multiple medications can be greater than that of any illness they are designed to treat. In these cases, a considered withdrawal or dose reduction (sometimes called de-prescribing) can reduce death and illness from drug side effects and interactions.
The main problem is that there is precious little data on how long withdrawal symptoms can last and how best to manage the withdrawal process.
Featured blog posts
Below is a selection of withdrawal-related blog posts which help to illustrate the issue. There are many more scattered over the last decade of blog posts – mostly filed in the withdrawal category.
Montelukast Withdrawal Syndrome
“When my happy, full-of-life, adventure-seeking 11-year-old son experienced severe, debilitating neuropsychiatric symptoms after stopping his asthma medication, I embarked on a journey in a desperate search for answers.”
Withdrawal from Sertraline
“This is the story of Anna. My first encounter with psychiatry and the “mental health” system was in the summer of 2008.”
Antidepressant Withdrawal: A Prozac Story
“I’m still not sure I understand what happened to me. I was prescribed Prozac in 1988 to treat bulimia.”
Anti-clotting drugs – Fiona’s Story
Fiona describes her experience of stopping the anti-clotting drug, clopidogrel.
Stopping antidepressants
Our guide to stopping antidepressants provides a comprehensive look at the difficulties stopping serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants, and it describes some withdrawal strategies that you might want to discuss with your doctor.
Some patients seek out therapists to help manage ongoing withdrawal symptoms. We know that these interactions can sometimes be problematic, so we created notes on antidepressant withdrawal to take to your therapist.
Complex withdrawal
If you are interested in doing your own research into withdrawal problems, our complex withdrawal section might be a good place to start. It offers a hypothesis based around peripheral neuropathy.
Video
Senedd Awareness Day. An awareness day dedicated to the issues of prescribed drug dependence, withdrawal, and iatrogenic harm. Held at the Senedd in Cardiff, Wales, UK. December 11, 2018.
Drug search
Enter the name of a medication in the box below to see a list of withdrawal-related adverse events that have been reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
We have more tools to look up adverse event reports on our Drug Search page.
You might also want to enter the name of a drug or side effect in the website search box at the bottom of the page. This will search our website for any related content.
Other side effects
Check out our other zones:
Are you experiencing a drug side effect?
Get your free RxISK Report to find out