How long can you stay on antidepressants?

By Christina Caron

The New York Times

When Marjorie Isaacson started taking medication for depression in her late 20s, she considered it lifesaving.

At the time, she had been dealing with a rocky marriage and struggling to eat. The drug, she found, helped her gain equilibrium. “I was really grateful just to be able to function,” she said.

But recently, Isaacson, 69, has been considering whether she wants to stay on antidepressants for the rest of her life.

Specifically, Isaacson wonders about the long-term effects of her medication, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that is known to raise blood pressure. And she feels unsettled by the emerging backlash against psychiatric drugs that has condemned their side effects and difficult withdrawal symptoms.

“As the years have passed, things have changed from ‘Take it and see how it goes, no need now to be concerned’ to ‘Well, it’s turning out things might be kinda complicated,’” she said. “That is worrisome.”

Antidepressants are among the most prescribed and easily accessible drugs in the United States, and many people take them for years.

But even though modern-day antidepressants have been around for decade...