Video / Sharecare Experts / Tarique Perera, MD / Will I Need to Take an Antidepressant for the Rest of My Life?

Will I Need to Take an Antidepressant for the Rest of My Life?

Will I Need to Take an Antidepressant for the Rest of My Life? (1:05)

About half of depression patients who are successfully treated with an antidepressant can go off it under a doctor's care. In this video, Tarique Perera, MD, a psychiatrist with Contemporary Care of Connecticut, explains.

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So the way the APA guidelines are, if it's your first or second impression, and if it's not severe. In other words, if you're not being suicidal, psychotic being hospitalized, and you get on after the person and you achieve full remission is not better but getting completely there, once you've been in full remission for six months, atleast six months after that you can try to come off that anti-depressant.

And the data suggest half the people can successfully come off it, the other half may relapse and if it relapse, you get back on the medication they will stay on it long term. So for people who have relapsed when you try to come off the medication after make criteria for remission and people who have more severe forms of depression, the suggestion is that they had to be on it life long.

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