These days, there are an entire slew of people being treated for depression with SSRI drugs, including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Cipralex. What you might not know is that of late, evidence has come to light that for a sizeable minority, ceasing the dose of these drugs can have HORRIFIC side effects, sometimes even leading to chemical neutering. People complain of terrible withdrawal effects which are often seen as a sign of the original symptoms returning, prompting a renewal of the drug therapy, making ceasing the dose even harder. Companies like Pfizer have resisted making this common knowledge, but have been forced to annotate their drug PI sheets with the "possibility" is SSRI withdrawal syndrome. For many people this doesn't not even register and even comes too late, with problems associated with ongoing use persisting several years after they come off the drugs.

I take a tonne of meds, one of which is Clonazepam, a tranquilliser. I take a very low dose. But my psychiatrist is loathe to let me take ANY more as over here these drugs are widely acknowledged to be terribly addictive. "Mothers Little Helpers" they were called after in times recently passed, they were prescribed as a matter of convenience to stressed out mothers with PPD and so on. No-none suspected. Nowadays, there are other medications that are used to manage stress. But I think that ALL psychiatric medications carry with them an element of dependancy - if you come off them, like I said, doctors just go, oh, that's your illness coming back, and lo and behold, you're put back on the meds. It's a med-go-round.

Agreed, some people NEED these drugs and I wouldn't deprive them of this remedy, but I do wish that the manufacturers would make the potential downsides more clear. I'm lucky, I've bounced from one antidepressant to another, having tried every SSRI and thirty other drugs in total. I am now happy with my current regime, an MAOI antidepressant called Stelazine plus augmenting drugs for other problems. Who knows, perhaps when in years to come, I will have problems ceasing this dose; for now I am comfy. But I don't kid myself; rocky roads may follow.