Anti-depressant care program

Antidepressants

Guidance Depression Contracted care Phasing out medication Therapy adherence

In the Netherlands, many people use antidepressants. Of the users, about 30% become long-term users, while 70% could eventually stop. Depression is usually temporary. Once you have recovered from the depression, it is possible to reduce the medication as well. Usually this is after a period of 6-12 months. Stopping is not always easy. Many people suffer from symptoms during quitting, such as psychological or physical discomfort. With good guidance, we want to help you use your medication safely and successfully and, when the time comes, stop responsibly.

What do we do for you?

Starting counseling for use of antidepressants
- We will guide you in the optimal use of your medication according to the latest guidelines and scientific insights.
- At the start, we will give you relevant information on how best to use the medication and what to expect.
- Your treatment will also be evaluated regularly in collaboration with your doctor or psychiatrist. This ensures that your medication is used safely and effectively and that any adjustments or tapering is done in consultation.
Monitoring and guiding adherence
- If we or you identify that you are having problems taking your medication faithfully as agreed with your treating physician, we offer targeted support in this regard.
Intermediate evaluations
- We regularly discuss together how your medication use is going. Here we see whether adjustments are needed, whether you encounter any problems and whether the expectations are clear.
Support for tapering off or stopping
- If you want to tap off or stop, we support you in doing so. We always do this in consultation and cooperation with your doctor or psychiatrist, so you can do this safely.

How do we do this?

We use a care path (Care Signal), which helps us to guide you step by step through time after starting with the antidepressant and to provide tailored information.
We identify problems or concerns about your medication early and make them discussable, so we can look for solutions together.
We evaluate your medication use according to the guidelines. With a first depression we discuss after 6-12 months with your prescriber whether tapering is possible. For multiple depressions we do this after 24 months.
If tapering is an option, we guide you in a safe and responsible way, so you do not have to do this alone. We always do this in close consultation with the prescriber and completely customized. Phasing out the antidepressant is done in small responsible steps (different for each drug and person), in which an increasingly lower dose is used over a certain period of time. In between, it is sometimes important to adjust these phasing out steps if it is noticed that things are going too fast. That is why it is very important to have the phasing out process properly supervised.

With this approach we want to help you use your medication properly, identify any problems early and provide a safe path to phasing out or stopping, if possible.