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In this TI Best Evidence webinar, Dr. Mark Horowitz will present the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines approach to deprescribing antidepressants and share insights about distinguishing between the withdrawal effects resulting from stopping antidepressants and the relapse of underlying conditions. He will also describe the method of hyperbolic tapering to stopping antidepressants. There will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify when, why and in whom to stop antidepressants;
2. Describe the risks of stopping these medications too quickly;
3. Be able to distinguish between withdrawal effects from these drugs and relapse of an underlying condition;
4. Be able to apply hyperbolic tapering to stopping these medications, adjusted to the individual patient.

About the speaker: Dr. Mark Horowitz MBBS, PhD is a Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry in the UK National Health Service, a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London and a training psychiatrist. He has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action. He is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and an associate editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Dr. Horowitz co-authored the recent Royal College of Psychiatry guidance on ‘Stopping Antidepressants’ in the UK, and his work informed the recent NICE guidelines on safe tapering of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and z-drugs. He has been commissioned by Health Education England to prepare a teaching module on how to safely stop antidepressants. He is a collaborating investigator on the RELEASE clinical trial in Queensland examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. Dr. Horowitz has written several papers about safe approaches to tapering psychiatric medications including publications in The Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Bulletin. He has an interest in rational psychopharmacology and deprescribing psychiatric medication, having experienced the difficulty of coming off psychiatric medications first hand, which has informed much of his work.