Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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 prescription with FDA approval. This is a major health crisis, much worse than crack babies. Glenmullen's book doesn't address addicted newborns, but you can read the horrible truth in Wyeth's most recent drug label for Effexor (June 2006, p24). In the debate over the risks and benefits of antidepressants, Glenmullen identifies himself as a moderate. He is, after all, a psychiatrist whose job is to dispense these meds. He deserves credit for trying to help the thousands of desperate victims, but his "solution" may offer only false hope, masking the problem and prolonging the suffering. Eventually the people will come to know the truth about these drugs and they will be banned or boycotted. Then those who have been profitting from the people's suffering will have to undergo their own painful withdrawal--from all that money.

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.

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.

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.

Diagnosed bi-polar I was looking for outside help in getting off Effexor, which I felt was not a good drug for me. I have found a huge amount of Online horror stories about the hell awaiting me, and friends on a constant "psychiatrists are Satan and all anti-depressants drugs are poison" rant had me filled with fear. This book calmed me down, helped me see when the "right time" to get off anti-depressants could be, and then how to do it. My psychiatrist was knowledgeable about the tapering off method, and I have had no problem worth mentioning in accomplishing this.

No doubt these medicines are over prescribed, and when given for reasons other than Major Clinical Depression can cause severe reactions, as would giving insulin to a non-diabetic. Finally, solid information. Excellent charts to copy if needed for withdrawal, common sense advice from someone qualified to give it.

This book spelled out exactly for me what to do and it worked! I had tried several times to give up my meds, but always ended up returning to them. After reading this book, I now realize that my overall mood after trying to quit the meds the first, second, and third times was due to the withdrawal symptoms and not depression or anxiety. I was finally able to get through the withdrawal symptoms without biting anyone's head off!

Suffering from Depression is bad enough and being on antidepressants can be even worse, especially when you decide that you no longer want to be on these pills. Making a decision to get off the antidepressants can be one of the best decisions you can make, but coming off these pills can open up a world of withdrawal issues. Dr Glenmullen has done a magnificent job with this book, he outlines everything you will ever need to know about what these pills are doing to yourself and how to get away from them safely. He will show you how to decrease dependency and decrease danger as well as the proper ways of weaning down by way of time frame and dosage calculations. This book should be required reading for anyone taking antidepressants. He goes into helping you evaluate your situation to make sure you are ready to be weaned off properly and then monitoring withdrawal symptoms after a dosage reduction. The FDA has finally admitted that these drugs pose a danger to those that take them regularly by issuing a 'black box warning' label on them. Miraculously, they have done their job, now it is time for you to do yours. We all deserve 'The Depressing Truth' and you should grab a copy of this book and get yourself off these drugs properly with the help of Dr Glenmullen.

i am pretty furious and disappointed in the medical community anymore anyway - i think they accept drug company's "studies" without question and now here we are with hormone, vaccine, obesity, cancer and psych problems galore - duh!

anyway - this book saved my life - i think antidepressants also saved my life - 15 YEARS AGO!!!! they are important and lifesaving - to a point - however a year after that severe depressive episode in 1995, i should have been weaned off - i believe now that all mental health problems i experienced - including one stay in the hospital in the 14 years since then - were CAUSED by different psych meds and/or attempting to withdraw from them. It has now been 6 months since i weaned off of them - with daily light therapy in front of a SAD lightbox and 40 min of moderate exercise - I am doing far better than i have in 14 years. And I'm finally able to loose weight 30 down, 20 to go. Thank you Dr. Glenmullen -please keep spreading the word - I'm sure it is not easy.

Dr. Glenmullen does a fine job of underscoring the importance of carefully tapering off

antidepressants. This is tremendously important because many MDs, psychopharmacologists included,

take a casual, potentially damaging approach to the process of discontinuing these meds.

I found the book very well intentioned, but redundant. Glenmullen makes a set of points over and over again, yet he doesn't deal at all with other relevant issues, i.e. nutritional supplements which have been found helpful to patients weaning off these medications. Although the subtitle of his first book, "Prozac Backlash"suggests that it covers "effective alternatives" there is no mention whatsoever of alternative approaches here. (I haven't read "Prozac Backlash" -- I'm just surprised that that sort of valuable information would be addressed in the author's first work and entirely ignored in the second, especially when it might be highly

useful for people concerned with getting off anti-depressants.