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Antidepressant deprescribing: State of the art and recommendations—A literature overview

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Abstract

Introduction

In recent years, the consumption of antidepressants has arisen. However, deprescribing antidepressant therapy is very complicated. The aim of this study was to implement practical recommendations for the development of guidelines to be used for antidepressant deprescription in clinical practice.

Materials and methods

The literature search has been conducted on March 13, 2023, using Scopus and PubMed databases. The following search string has been used: “antidepressants AND (deprescribing OR deprescription)”. All studies reporting a deprescribing intervention for antidepressant medication, regardless of the study design, have been included. Studies that did not report antidepressant drug deprescription interventions and non-English-language papers have been excluded.

Results

From the literature search, a total of 230 articles have been extracted. Applying the exclusion criteria, 26 articles have been considered eligible. Most of the analyzed studies (16, 61%) have been carried out in the real world, 3 (11%) were RCTs, 5 (19%) were qualitative studies, in particular expert opinions, 1 (4%) was a literature review, and 1 (4%) was a post-trial observational follow-up of an RCT. In 8 out of 26 studies (31%), the analyzed antidepressants have been specified: 2 (8%) focused on anticholinergics, 2 (8%) on SSRIs, 3 (11%) on tricyclic antidepressants, and 1 (4%) on esketamine. Nineteen out of 26 studies (73%) did not stratify antidepressants by therapeutic class. The sample sizes analyzed in the studies ranged from a minimum of 4 patients to a maximum of 113,909, and 12 studies included geriatric age as an inclusion criterion. A patient’s therapy review has been the main deprescribing intervention, and it has been identified in 14 (54%) articles. Interventions have been carried out by clinicians in 4 (15%) studies, general practitioners in 5 (19%) studies, nurses in 2 (8%) studies, pharmacists in 4 (15%) studies, multidisciplinary teams in 10 (38%) studies, and patients in 1 (4%) study.

Conclusions

From the literature review, it emerged that there is no clear evidence useful to support clinicians in antidepressant deprescribing interventions.

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Funding

No funding was received to conduct this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Territorial Pharmaceutical Service, Local Health Unit Lanciano Vasto Chieti, Chieti, Italy

    Alessia Romagnoli

  2. Ministry of Health, Viale Giorgio Ribotta 5, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Andrea Zovi

  3. ASL Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

    Fiorenzo Santoleri

  4. Hospital Pharmacy of Corato, Local Health Unit of Bari, Corato, Italy

    Ruggero Lasala

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  1. Alessia Romagnoli
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  2. Andrea Zovi
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  3. Fiorenzo Santoleri
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  4. Ruggero Lasala
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A.R. wrote the mail manuscript text. All authors collected the data and reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Alessia Romagnoli.

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Romagnoli, A., Zovi, A., Santoleri, F. et al. Antidepressant deprescribing: State of the art and recommendations—A literature overview. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 80, 417–433 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-023-03617-x

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