Aims

(1) To increase awareness of the situation whereby some patients report experience continuation of ‘side effects’ and the development of additional symptoms upon cessation of antidepressant medications.

(2) To encourage independent rigorous scientific research by leading professionals to further investigate the links between the above noted patient experiences and anti-depressant medications, and whether there are other influencing factors.

(3) To hold psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry to higher standards of transparency regarding long-term effects and risks of antidepressants.

(4) To encourage research into the development of treatment for sufferers.

(5) To encourage better support for sufferers.

We are not necessarily anti-psychiatry or anti-medication, rather we are pro-research and for increasing transparency and dialogue. The long-term negative impacts of antidepressant medications are real and are frequently ignored in favour of amplifying the voices of those who have found them beneficial. We acknowledge that some people have found antidepressants helpful, even life-saving, and their stories are important. We do not seek to speak over the voices of anyone who has achieved positive results from psychiatric medication, but we believe the public conversation has been increasingly one-sided in favour of medication, and that the voices of those harmed are being sidelined. There needs to be more discussion of the risks of medicating mental health issues and the possibility of developing long-term sexual, emotional and cognitive dysfunction from exposure to antidepressants. We believe in informed consent, and when vital information is absent from the conversation this is impossible to grant.