Discontinuing Antidepressant Medications

"When I started my residency training program in psychiatry in Italy, more than four decades ago, depression was the psychiatric disorder that particularly attracted my attention. In 1980 I decided to move to United States to further pursue my interest, first in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then in Buffalo, New York, where I was offered to establish a depression unit. I was convinced that depression was essentially an episodic disorder, that there were powerful remedies against it (antidepressant drugs) and chronicity was essentially a consequence of inadequate diagnosis and treatment. Today, if I think of my views then, I am surprised of my naivete and clinical blindness. We have become aware that depression is essentially a chronic disorder with multiple acute episodes along its course (1). But my view was then shared by almost any expert in the field"--