Is it generally harder to taper off of Gabapentin or an SSRI antidepressant, and why?
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All medications have a half-life, which is the amount of time it takes for your system to flush out 50% of the medication. Difficulty in tapering off an SSRI depends on this half-life.
Paxil has a short half life, so your body starts to go into withdrawal very quickly, within 36 hours. This makes it very hard on the body to quit even with tapering. Prozac, on the other hand, has a half-life of a couple weeks. This means that part of the tapering is automatic when you discontinue the medication, making it much easier on the body to taper and quit than Paxil.
How difficult it is to taper and quit an SSRI depends on the medication. It can’t be compared to another medication without that information.
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