How to taper off your antidepressant

Response to dosage dictates best schedule to stop taking medication

Discontinuing an antidepressant usually involves reducing your dose in increments, allowing two to six weeks or longer between dose reductions. Your clinician can instruct you in tapering your dose and prescribe the appropriate dosage pills. In some cases, you can use a pill cutter to create smaller-dose pills, though be sure to check with your clinician or pharmacist to find out if your antidepressant can be cut. You may also be able to use a liquid formulation for smaller dose adjustments.

Your tapering schedule will depend on which antidepressant you're taking, how long you've been taking it, your current dose, and any symptoms you had during previous medication changes. Below is a chart with sample tapering schedules for some of the most popular antidepressants. However, depending on how you respond to each dose reduction, you may want to taper more gradually using smaller dose reductions, longer intervals between dose reductions, or both. If you experience discontinuation symptoms after a particular dose reduction, you may want to add back half the dose — or all of it — and continue from there with smaller dose reductions. There are no hard and fast rules for getting off antidepressants, other than that the approach should be individualized! Some people can taper off an antidepressant in a matter of weeks, while others may take months.

For more guidance on how to safely discontinue antidepressants, see the books Taking Antidepressants: Your Comprehensive Guide to Starting, Staying On, and Safely Quitting, by Michael D. Banov, M.D. and The Antidepressant Solution: A Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and "Addiction," by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.