Managing withdrawal symptoms using tapering strips

[摘要] In their acclaimed article, Palmer and colleagues question how GPs should deal with those who experience withdrawal symptoms.1 In the Netherlands tapering medication has been developed to help GPs and other practitioners to do precisely that.2 Tapering strips and stabilisation strips enable them to flexibly prescribe and adjust personalised gradual and hyperbolic tapering schedules, based on shared decision making and proper self-monitoring. This tapering medication has been prescribed to more than 10 000 patients, allowing us to investigate whether and to what extent they have benefited from it. Because 60% of them had tried unsuccessfully to stop using an antidepressant in the past when they experienced severe withdrawal symptoms, it was possible to make within-subject comparisons between stop attempt(s) without and with the use of tapering strips.3–5 These comparisons showed that about 70% of patients who were not able to stop in the past when they suffered from severe withdrawal were able to stop when using tapering strips, the use of which resulted in much less withdrawal. Tapering strips and stabilisation strips can also be prescribed to and used by patients in the UK (www.taperingstrip.com).Notes Competing InterestsPC Groot was involved in the development of tapering strips and both authors research tapering strips. Neither author is involved in any way in the production or sale of tapering strips.

[学科分类] 卫生学