Keeping Up With Medication - The Problem Of Recurrence: Depression
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Keeping up with medication
To prevent a relapse, it's important to continue taking your medication even after you feel better. A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association divided into two groups 150 people with dysthymia or double depression who had responded to treatment with sertraline (Zoloft). Some of these people continued to take the drug, while the rest took a placebo. After 18 months, only 6% of the group taking sertraline had relapsed, compared with 23% of the placebo group.
Most psychiatrists will recommend that you stay on your medication for about a year after a first episode of depression. If you have had several episodes, your doctor will probably recommend maintenance treatment indefinitely.
Is it a relapse or not?When you stop taking an antidepressant, you may experience uncomfortable symptoms as your body readjusts. These might include stomach upset, loss of appetite, or diarrhea; flulike symptoms such as a runny nose, sweating, muscle aches, or fever; and a variety of other symptoms such as tingling, restlessness, trouble sleeping, vivid dreams, fatigue, dizziness, or lightheadedness. Sometimes people also experience mood changes, such as irritability, sadness, anxiety, agitation, or crying spells. It can be difficult to know whether this is a result of stopping the medication or if the original depression is returning. The best way to tell is to wait a short time. Symptoms linked to coming off an antidepressant almost always disappear within several days or weeks. If symptoms of depression continue, however, see your doctor about restarting the antidepressant. Tapering off your medicine slowly can help you avoid this problem. The medications most likely to cause these symptoms are the ones that leave the body rapidly — so your doctor may switch you to one that stays in your system longer and then gradually ease you off that one. |
| Last updated: | January 23, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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