Staying on your antidepressant: five things the column left out
on 13 september 2026 a psychiatrist wrote in men’s health that stopping antidepressants has become fashionable, that withdrawal is usually mild, and that staying on is fine. if you read it and felt relieved, or read it and felt brushed off, this page is for you. we checked every claim against the research and looked the author up in the federal payment database. his core advice holds. his withdrawal number is the smaller of two. and the things he left out are the things that would actually help you decide.
what he said, and what he left out
the author is a board-certified psychiatrist writing after the health secretary announced plans against “psychiatric overprescribing.”[1] his argument, in our words: antidepressants work for most people, the real crisis is access, withdrawal is rare and mild, and if your antidepressant is helping you, staying on it is fine. on the last point he is right, and he says the thing we say too: never stop on your own. here are the five places the column and the research part ways, in order of how much they matter to you.
1 of 5
he never cites the trial that proves his own point
he said
staying on an antidepressant that helps you is fine; he argues it from his practice.
he left out
the best randomised trial on exactly this question exists, supports him, and he does not use it.
the receipt
ANTLER, 478 people who felt well enough to stop: half kept the pill, half tapered onto a placebo. a year later, stopping had cost about one extra relapse for every six people who stopped. publicly funded.[2]
2 of 5
his withdrawal number is the smaller of two answers
he said
“about 15 percent of patients experience withdrawal symptoms,” citing one study in the lancet psychiatry.
he left out
that figure is from short trials with planned tapers, after subtracting the placebo-stoppers who also reported symptoms. a second review, of people who actually stopped in real life, found nearly four times as many, almost half of them severe. he does not mention it.
3 of 5
his own source contradicts his “lexapro is easy” line
he said
paxil is harder to stop; lexapro is easier.
he left out
the lancet psychiatry review he cites lists escitalopram, which is lexapro, among the four drugs most tied to withdrawal symptoms.
the receipt
in that review the drugs most tied to symptoms were desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine and escitalopram. he quoted the paper for its number and not for its drug list.[3]
4 of 5
“a mild flu for a couple of days” is the best case, not the guideline
he said
stopping cold turkey might make you feel a little off, like a mild flu, for a couple of days.
he left out
the official uk guideline says coming off can be difficult and may take several months or more, and that the dose should come down in steps that get smaller near the end, not equal cuts.
the receipt
nice guideline ng215 on medicines associated with withdrawal symptoms, 2022.[5]
5 of 5
“psychiatrists are good at helping you taper” assumes a conversation that usually never happened
he said
psychiatrists are trained to treat withdrawal and are pretty good at tapering safely.
he left out
in the largest survey of people on antidepressants, about one in a hundred remembered being told about withdrawal before they started, and about one in two went on to have it.
the receipt
survey of 1,829 people on antidepressants in new zealand.[6]
who wrote it, and who pays him
our rule on every article about medication is to look up the author in the federal payment database, in both directions. dr brown is a psychiatrist in texas. we searched the open payments general and research files for 2021 through 2024 by his national provider number and found no payments from any drug or device company.[7] his research on pubmed is four papers: three federally funded studies of methamphetamine use and one case report, none about antidepressants. his public work is a self-help book and a men’s health column. so this is a clinician writing from his practice, not a paid position, and we say so as plainly as we would have said the opposite. the opposition here is not a person. it is a format that gives you one number and no source.
what to take from this
- if an antidepressant is working for you, the best trial says staying on it is the safer bet against relapse. that is a real finding and it is yours to use.
- if you want to stop, the honest answer on withdrawal is a range, roughly one in seven to one in two, the official guidance says plan for months with smaller steps at the end, and lexapro is not the easy one his column says it is.
- ask the question the column assumes was asked: “what does coming off this look like, and what is the plan if it is hard?”
- never stop on your own. on that, the column and this page agree completely.
the numbers behind the comparisons
every comparison above, with the raw values it came from.
| what was measured | one side | the other | the comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| relapse within a year (ANTLER)[2] | 39% stayed on | 56% stopped | about one extra relapse per six who stopped |
| any withdrawal symptom, short trials (2024 review)[3] | 31% stopping the drug | 17% stopping placebo | the drug’s own share is the gap, about one in seven |
| severe withdrawal, short trials (2024 review)[3] | about 3% on the drug | under 1% on placebo | rare in both, several times more common on the drug |
| any withdrawal, mostly real-world stoppers (2019 review)[4] | 56% | 15% (the column’s number) | nearly four times as many |
| told about withdrawal before starting (NZ survey)[6] | about 1 in 100 told | about 1 in 2 had it | the conversation usually never happened |
questions people ask
Is it safe to stay on an antidepressant long term?
The best randomised trial on the question, ANTLER, took people who felt well enough to stop and had half keep going while half tapered onto a placebo. A year later, stopping had cost about one extra relapse for every six people who stopped. That supports staying on if it is working for you. What a decade on the drug does to the body is less settled, and the column says so too.
How common is antidepressant withdrawal?
Two reviews disagree, and the honest answer is a range. A 2024 meta-analysis of short trials found that people stopping a placebo reported withdrawal at more than half the rate of people stopping the real drug, and put the drug’s own share at about one person in seven. A 2019 review built mostly on surveys of people who had actually stopped found nearly four times as many, with almost half of them calling it severe. The UK guideline says coming off can be difficult and may take several months or more.
Does the author of the Men’s Health column take drug company money?
Not on the federal record. We searched the Open Payments general and research files for 2021 to 2024 by his provider number and found no payments. His published research is federally funded addiction studies and one case report, none of it on antidepressants.
Should I stop my antidepressant?
That is a decision for you and your prescriber, and the column and this page agree on the one rule: never stop on your own. If you want to stop, ask for a taper plan with steps that get smaller near the end.
sources
- Brown GS. Staying on your antidepressant might be out of fashion, but it’s also totally OK. Men’s Health, 13 September 2026. https://www.menshealth.com/health/a73586007/why-staying-on-your-antidepressant-is-out-of-fashionand-also-radically-ok/
- Lewis G, et al. Maintenance or discontinuation of antidepressants in primary care (ANTLER). N Engl J Med. 2021;385:1257-1267. PMID 34587384. 478 patients; relapse by 52 weeks 39% (maintained) vs 56% (discontinued). Funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34587384/
- Henssler J, et al. Incidence of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2024;11(7):526-535. PMID 38851198. 79 studies, 21,002 people; at least one symptom in 31% stopping an antidepressant and 17% stopping placebo; drug-specific share about 15%; severe symptoms about 3% vs under 1%. Drugs most associated with symptoms: desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine, escitalopram. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38851198/
- Davies J, Read J. A systematic review into the incidence, severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal effects: are guidelines evidence-based? Addict Behav. 2019;97:111-121. PMID 30292574. 14 studies; withdrawal in 56% of people stopping; nearly half of those rating it at the most severe option offered. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30292574/
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults. NG215, 2022. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng215
- Read J, Cartwright C, Gibson K. Adverse emotional and interpersonal effects reported by 1829 New Zealanders while taking antidepressants. Psychiatry Res. 2014;216(1):67-73. About 1% recalled being told about withdrawal; about half reported withdrawal effects. Library row veisund.com/r/53476. https://www.veisund.com/r/53476
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Open Payments, general and research payment files, program years 2021 to 2024, queried by National Provider Identifier on 2026-09-21. https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/
- Trial length behind each antidepressant approval: veisund.com/topics/the-longest-trial-behind-each-approval. https://www.veisund.com/topics/the-longest-trial-behind-each-approval
related: the longest trial behind each approval
adam
claims about this we went and checked
- misattributeddo antidepressants beat placebo by only one or two points on depression scales?said on Lex Fridman Podcast, 2026-09-21; the speaker has the size right. on the scale most antidepressant trials used, the average gap between drug and placebo is about 1.8 to 2.1 points. that number is statistically solid, and it falls below the clinical-benefit cutoffs those same papers cite.
- confirmeddo 40% or more of people with depression not respond to antidepressants?said on Lex Fridman Podcast, 2026-09-21; the number holds up. in the largest real-world antidepressant study the US government funded, about half of patients did not respond to the first drug they were given, so "40 or north of 40%" is a fair, even conservative, way to put it.
- overstateddoes nice tell clinicians in england to use cbt rather than antidepressants first?said on Lex Fridman Podcast, 2026-09-21; this part is true: england's depression guideline (nice ng222, june 2022) tells clinicians not to routinely offer antidepressants as first-line treatment for less severe depression unless the person makes an informed choice to take them, and cbt is one of the first-line options it recommends. in the evidence review nice commissioned, antidepressants showed no evidence of effect in less severe depression, and group cbt did.
every check quotes one sentence, links the original at the timestamp, and takes each assertion to the primary record. the full list: /checked.