The role of empathy in antidepressant withdrawal

Many antidepressant users experience the process of stopping as challenging because of withdrawal symptoms. Support factors, such as patients experiencing empathy from their healthcare providers, potentially contribute to successful discontinuation.

To examine the relation between experienced empathy and successful antidepressant discontinuation.

Part of a larger prospective cohort study in major depressive disorder patients using sertraline or citalopram recruited through university medical centres and connected general practitioners, pharmacies and mental health institutions. The larger study aimed to identify factors associated with remission and patients' experiences with discontinuing antidepressants.

Patients were followed for 24 months. We measured objective and subjective discontinuation success. Subjective discontinuation was measured with the Discontinuation Success Scale, a scale with three subscales (subjective feeling of success, positive and negative effects of discontinuation). Empathy was measured with the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure. To analyse the association between perceived empathy and discontinuation success, we used regression analyses.

Of 918 participants in the larger study, 235 attempted discontinuation and 153 could be included in the analysis. About two-thirds of the participants were successful in discontinuing antidepressant medication. We did not find an association between perceived empathy and objective discontinuation success. Perceived empathy was positively associated with subjective success and negatively associated with the negative effects of discontinuation.

Although we could not demonstrate an association of perceived empathy and objective discontinuation, we consider the finding of a relation between subjective success as relevant because a successful experience regarding antidepressant discontinuation may positively influence the initiation of future attempts.