New study tests best method to quit antidepressants without relapse

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * 18 years old or above; * diagnosed with a depressive disorder, single episode (ICD-11, 6A70) or recurrent (ICD-11, 6A71); * currently taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), or vortioxetine for the treatment of depression; * the current AD has been taken for at least 6 months; * the current AD has been on a stable dose over the last 2 months; * a score ≤9 on the PHQ-9 and ≤5 on the GAD-7 at study enrolment; * DSM-5-TR criteria for a depressive episode are not met at the time of recruitment; * no clinical evidence of moderate-to-severe symptoms in the last 6 months, as assessed by the recruiting clinician; * discontinuing the AD is clinically indicated by the recruiting clinician, and agreed to by the participant in a shared decision-making process; * uncertainty about which discontinuation strategy would be best for the participant; * the participant is willing to sign the informed consent to participate to the study. Exclusion Criteria: * comorbid schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, or dementia, as formally diagnosed by a psychiatrist, neurologist, geriatrician, or other specialists; * current treatment with more than one AD at therapeutic doses; * current treatment with ADs of other classes (e.g., mirtazapine, agomelatine, bupropion, for which the evidence on the risk of withdrawal is unclear), alone or in combination with other ADs; * conditions or medications that contraindicate the use of any AD according to the Summary of Product Characteristics of included ADs (synthetically reported in Table 1) (e.g., current symptoms of mania); * current treatment with benzodiazepines above the dose of 2.5 mg equivalents of lorazepam per day (corresponding to clonazepam 1.2 mg/day; alprazolam 1.2 mg/day; diazepam 19 mg/day); * pregnancy or willingness to become pregnant.