[SSRI discontinuation syndrome: incidence and differences on three groups of patients treated with paroxetine]

In recent years, many cases have been published about the appearance of a specific syndrome after the suspension or the sharp reduction in dose of antidepressants. Most of the reports and records relating to the very short half-life SSRI paroxetina. The following work intended to investigate the syndrome, its impact and its correlation with some parameters: age, sex, diagnosis, time of taking and antidepressant drug, therapeutic compliance, suspension and symptoms. The study, lasting approximately 6 months, was conducted with 148 outpatient, all treated with paroxetine.This paper highlights how the discontinuation syndrome is rare in individuals who received antidepressant treatment for short periods, and how it is, rather, much more common in cases of depression NAS, followed by panic attacks, compared with case of major depression. A positive correlation seems to be also with sex (having observed that go more frequently to meet withdrawal symptoms subjects male), and with age, patients being young adults between 35 and 55 years. The symptoms reported were very similar among all patients: headache, dizziness, abdominal pain and perineal, elevated pressure, anxiety, depersonalization and derealization, nightmares. Interestingly, the total absence of symptoms related to the original diagnosis of the disorder. Going to investigate the causal event for the emergence of the discontinuation syndrome, it was possible to divide the cases examined in three categories: independent suspension without medical opinion, suspension accelerated (both conditions due to outpatients) and finally patients that, although they had followed all the guidelines for suspension of the drug, had gone to meet equally symptoms. The syndrome can be prevented reducing very gradually the antidepressant dosage, while if there are symptoms it is indicated to reintroduce the drug and then scale or replance it with a different molecule.