Psychiatria pre prax 2/2004

Treatment discontinuation in anxiety and depressive disorders

The treatment of depressive and serious anxiety disorders is long-term and the risk of relapses and recurrences is high. According international guidelines we should uphold these three main phases of treatment: the acute one, whose goal is to reach remission, the continuation one, which serves mainly to prevent a relapse, and the maintenance one – in case of complicated diseases, and to prevent recurrences. In common practice, however, a high percentage of patients stops taking their medication premature, which leads to increased risk. The discontinuation or interruption of treatment is frequent in all classes of antidepressants. The differentiation between individual medication are not great, only the discontinuation of treatment due to occurrence of adverse events is more frequent in the TCA group. In recent years has been learned more information about withdrawal syndrome from antidepressants, which can complicate co-operation with the client, or possibly cause diagnostic problems.

Keywords: depressive and anxiety disorders, premature discontinuation, relapse, recurrence, withdrawal syndrome from antidepressants.