Some Can Slowly Taper Off Antidepressants Without Risk Of Relapse, Review Concludes

Key TakeawaysSome patients with depression can be slowly tapered off their meds, if they receive psychological supportTheir risk of relapse is about the same as people who remain on antidepressantsHowever, dropping antidepressants abruptly or rapidly tapering off them did increase relapse risk.MONDAY, Dec. 15, 2025 (HealthDay News) — It’s safe to slowly taper some people off antidepressants after their depression fades, rather than continuing the drugs indefinitely, a new evidence review says.People who slowly tapered off antidepressants while receiving psychological counseling had a similar risk of relapse to those who kept taking the drugs with or without therapy, researchers report in the January 2026 issue of The Lancet Psychiatry.“Our findings suggest that while antidepressants are effective in preventing depressive relapses, they do not need to be a long-term treatment for everyone,” lead researcher Debora Zaccoletti said in a news release. She’s a research scholar in psychiatry at the University of Verona in Italy.However, the researchers emphasized that the results don’t mean antidepressants are unnecessary or that therapy alone is adequate — only that some individuals can be slowly weaned off the drugs without risk of relapse.Slow tapering off antidepressants, combined with psychological counseling and support, could prevent 1 depression relapse in every 5 people compared with dropping the drugs outright or fast tapering, results showed.“We encourage anyone considering coming off antidepressants to discuss the process with their doctor first to jointly find the best strategy for them,” senior researcher Dr. Giovanni Ostuzzi, a lecturer at the University of Verona, said in a news release.For their review, researchers pooled data from 76 previous clinical trials involving nearly 17,400 people.“Depression is often a recurring condition and without ongoing treatment as many as 3 out of 4 people with recurrent depression relapse at some point,” Ostuzzi said.“Clinical guidelines recommend continuing antidepressants for a certain period after remission, then considering discontinuation once the person has remained well,” he continued. “Yet in everyday practice, treatment is often prolonged far beyond what guidelines suggest.”Researchers used the pooled data to compare the effectiveness of all major antidepressant strategies after a person has recovered from depression, including:Suddenly quitting the medsFast tapering over four weeks or lessSlow tapering for more than four weeksCutting the dose by 50% or moreSimply continuing antidepressant treatmentEvidence showed that slowly tapering antidepressants combined with psychological support prevented relapse about as well as remaining on a standard dose of the drugs.“Safe alternative treatments like psychological support, including cognitive behavioral and mindfulness-based therapies, can be a promising tool — even in the short-term,” Zaccoletti said.“However, considerable health care resources are needed to develop and implement dedicated psychotherapy approaches in clinical practice so more cost-effective, short-term, scalable and remotely delivered interventions should be tested and prioritized,” she added.Results also indicated that continuing with a reduced dose of antidepressants was better than abruptly stopping or fast tapering.In an accompanying editorial, psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Henssler noted that “the best patient outcomes were achieved with strategies that maintained antidepressant therapy,” however.“This finding serves as a reminder of the severity and chronicity of depression in many cases and, notwithstanding the preference for minimizing pharmacotherapy duration, highlights the limitations of the current curative capacity of antidepressant therapies,” wrote Henssler, a senior physician in psychiatry and neurosciences at Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany.More informationThe American Psychological Association has more on depression treatments for adults.SOURCE: The Lancet Psychiatry, news release, Dec. 10, 2025 .What This Means For YouSome people can safely taper off antidepressants, if it’s done slowly and with psychological counseling and support..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter