RCPsych List of Withdrawal Symptoms

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the professional body responsible for psychiatry in the UK.

They have a page on their website about stopping antidepressants. Their own disclaimer on this page states: "Our information isn't a substitute for personalised medical advice from a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional."

This page also states: 

"Other people can have more severe symptoms which last much longer (sometimes months or more than a year). At the moment we cannot predict who will get the more serious withdrawal symptoms."

Needless to say, they're understating the timescales as much as they reasonably can. They are aware of patient voice studies done in the UK where median duration of symptoms was 2 years, as are the MHRA.

However, the purpose of this post is to draw attention to their list of symptoms, the body of text on this page does discuss some, many of which will be familiar. However Appendix 2 at the link below currently lists potential symptoms. They currently list 27:

Stopping antidepressants

The main body of text (aside from the list in the appendix) lists the following potential symptoms:

• anxiety which comes and goes, sometimes in intense 'surges'
• difficulty in getting to sleep and vivid or frightening dreams
• low mood, feeling unable to be interested in or enjoy things
• a sense of being physically unwell
• rapidly changing moods
• anger, sleeplessness, tiredness, loss of co-ordination and headache
• the feeling of an electric shock in your arms, legs, or head. These are sometimes called ‘zaps’ and turning your head to the side can make them worse.
• a feeling that things are not real (‘derealisation’), or a feeling that you have ‘cotton wool in your head’
• difficulty in concentrating
• suicidal thoughts
• queasiness
• dizziness (this is usually mild, but can be so bad that you can’t stand up without help)
• a feeling of inner restlessness and inability to stay still (akathisia).

The page linked to was published in March 2024 and may subsequently be updated, the above post describes the version published on March 2024 which is still current as on January 2026.