VIDEO
Suicidal Depression, Addiction Treatment, Biochemical Makeover!
Addiction to treatment
Are antidepressants addictive?
No. This is a question that has been widely researched over very many years. There is no evidence that any antidepressant drug is addictive (or habit forming). However, it does need to be said that some antidepressants are more difficult to decrease and stop than others. The older tricyclic antidepressants are relatively easy to decrease and stop, whereas some of the newer antidepressants, particularly paroxetine (Seroxat), can sometimes cause symptoms initially when the dose is decreased and stopped.
This phenomenon is called a ‘discontinuation syndrome’ and is like the symptoms that prompted the doctor to start the medication in the first place, such as anxiety, tingling in the hands or feet, and a feeling of being ‘spaced out’. Over half the general population wrongly believes that antidepressants are addictive. This is the major reason for people giving up medication too soon.
I had a problem with substance abuse and I have to be really careful about what I take. Will I get addicted to antidepressants?
No. Antidepressants are definitely not addictive substances. Many people who have been through a recovery and rehabilitation programme for addictions have quite rightly been carefully trained to avoid mood-altering substances. They are encouraged to learn to live in the real world, however uncomfortable it may be, rather than blotting it out or escaping from it. Alcohol, tranquillisers and stimulants (whether legal or illegal ones) obviously come into this category. However, antidepressants do not alter your sensory perceptions. They do not make you feel high, happy, or excited. They do not prevent you from perceiving what’s happening all around you in real life or help you escape from it. So you will not – repeat not – get addicted to them.
You mention that drugs like Valium are addictive. Does this apply to everybody?
Valium and the rest of its family, the benzodiazepines, are certainly effective at reducing anxiety. However, current prescribing guidelines are very clear that these drugs should only be used for a maximum of 2-4 weeks, and only for severe, disabling, distressing anxiety. Habituation (addiction) can all too easily occur if they are used for longer periods. This means that the effect wears off and you have to increase the dose to get the same effect. Stopping these drugs after a longer period of time can also be difficult and lead to withdrawal symptoms. These drugs can have a disinhibiting effect, and paradoxically make you excited or even aggressive, by reducing your normal self-control mechanisms.
The same drugs are commonly used as sleeping tablets, and again we do advise that they are best used only in short spells, for a few days at a time is best. Longer use can lead to rebound insomnia, where your sleep becomes worse when you stop the drug.
Having made that general caution about these drugs, it is true that some people are more vulnerable to addictions than others. We do talk about ‘addictive personalities’, people who are particularly vulnerable to becoming addicted, and this can take the form of addiction to alcohol, nicotine, prescribed or street drugs, or to comforting, exciting or risky behaviours, such as overeating, computer games, gambling – and even sex. It seems
clear that these behaviours may run in families, and that genetics play a part in addictions of all kinds.
If someone has had a problem with alcohol or other drugs in the past, doctors need to be particularly cautious when prescribing anything that alters mood. However, antidepressants and the major tranquillisers (chlorpromazine, haloperidol and the new major tranquillisers, like olanzepine) are not addictive.
How can I avoid discontinuation symptoms?
I’ve been on an SSRI for 9 months and I want to stop it soon. Tail off your medications gradually over a month. Some people don’t notice any problem at all; others are more perceptive to these symptoms. You can get some antidepressants in liquid form if you want to subdivide the final dose into smaller and smaller amounts.
Usually just taking one dose on alternate days does the trick.
