Discontinuation of antidepressants: Is there a minimum time on treatment that will reduce relapse risk?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Several national guidelines include recommendations for a minimum duration of antidepressant treatment, but these vary from 4-9 months after remission. We aimed to investigate whether there is an optimal minimum duration of antidepressant treatment to reduce relapse risk.

Methods

A Danish population-based cohort study among 89,442 adults who initiated antidepressants for depression treatment aged 18-60 years, from 2006-2015. We defined antidepressant discontinuation as ≥30 days without treatment. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to indicate the risk of restarting antidepressants among those who discontinued antidepressants with <4, 4-6, and 7-9 months of use compared with discontinuation after 10-12 months.

Results

For in

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8739188 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature