Around one in six people who stop antidepressants will experience withdrawal symptoms as a direct result of the medicine.
This figure is lower than previous estimates, according to the largest study of its kind.
New analysis of randomised controlled trials published in The Lancet Psychiatry found 15% of patients will experience one or more discontinuation symptoms that are directly caused by stopping the drugs, while around 2-3% will suffer severe symptoms.
Previous research suggested much higher rates of withdrawal symptoms, with 56% of all patients affected.
In 2022/23, NHS figures showed 86 million antidepressants were prescribed to an estimated 8.6 million patients in England.
Read more:
Thousands taking antidepressants for pain despite insufficient evidence they work
Long-term use of antidepressants could cause permanent damage
In the new research, the most commonly used antidepressants in the UK – citalopram, sertraline and fluoxetine – were found to have the lowest rates of withdrawal symptoms throughout the study.
However, venlafaxine, which is also used in the UK, was second highest for people experiencing symptoms.
In a linked editorial, Glyn Lewis, professor of epidemiological psychiatry at the University College London Division of Psychiatry and his colleague Dr Gemma Lewis said many of the studies in the new overall analysis were small, “often using antidepressants not commonly used now, and studying people who had not taken the antidepressants for a very long time”.
But they added: “Despite these limitations, the results here are a substantial improvement on anything that has been published before.”
