The New York Times reports that the medical profession has no good answer for people struggling to stop taking the drugs — no scientifically backed guidelines, no means to determine who’s at highest risk, no way to tailor appropriate strategies to individuals.
Read More"This is something people choose, and we don't know enough about it to help people," says Laysha Ostrow, chief executive officer of a mental-health consultancy in California and a public-health researcher who worked on the study. "I feel that it's important to bring those ideas into more of a mainstream conversation, given how many people decide to discontinue. It shouldn't be this subversive thing that we don't talk about in the health-care system or in research."
Read MoreTo enhance service user choice and prevent undesirable outcomes, this first U.S. survey of a large sample of longer-term users sought to increase knowledge about users’ experience of medication discontinuation. About half (54%) met their goal of completely discontinuing one or more medications; 46% reported another outcome (use was reduced, use increased, or use stayed the same). Of respondents who completely discontinued, 82% were satisfied with their decision.
Read MoreIndividuals in psychiatric treatment frequently choose to stop taking psychiatric medications, but little is known about the role of social supports in this process. Of all social support groups, only family was significantly associated with medication discontinuation. Respondents who rated family as helpful in the discontinuation process were less likely to completely discontinue than those who rated family as unhelpful or who reported no family involvement. Additionally, we observed a statistically significant but nonlinear relationship where respondents who rated their families as either “very supportive” or “very unsupportive” of the decision to discontinue were less likely to meet their original discontinuation goal than those with more neutral ratings. The results of this study suggest families have an important and complex role in medication decision-making.
Read MoreThis paper describe the results of a survey to explore professional support to service users during medication discontinuation to inform clinical practice and guide future research. Only 65% of respondents reported seeing a prescriber and less than 50% reported seeing a psychotherapist while attempting to discontinue psychiatric medication. Combined with respondents’ answers describing the decision-making process and support received from these services, this paper identifies gaps in service and the need to improve providers’ ability to support individuals while they discontinue psychiatric medication.
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