Mark Horowitz - Peer-Support Groups Were Right, Guidelines Were Wrong - Tapering Off Antidepressants
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Interview by Peter Simons.
Dr. Mark Horowitz is a training psychiatrist and researcher and recently co-authored, with Dr. David Taylor, a review of antidepressant withdrawal that was published in Lancet Psychiatry, which we've written about here at Mad in America (see here). Their article suggests that tapering off antidepressants over months or even years is more successful at preventing withdrawal symptoms than a quick discontinuation of two to four weeks.
Dr. Horowitz is currently completing his psychiatry training in Sydney, Australia, and has completed a PhD in the neurobiology of antidepressants at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London. He is a clinical research fellow on the RADAR study run by University College, London. His research work focuses on pharmacologically informed ways of tapering patients off of medication. He plans to conduct studies examining the best methods for tapering medications in order to develop evidence based guidelines to assist patients and doctors.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Madden America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice. |
| 0:13.1 | Welcome to the Madden America podcast. I'm Peter Simons, and I'm a science news writer for the |
| 0:18.6 | Madden America site. Today, I'm fortunate to be interviewing Dr. Mark Horowitz. |
| 0:23.6 | Dr. Horowitz is a training psychiatrist and researcher. |
| 0:26.6 | He is completing his psychiatry training in Sydney, Australia, |
| 0:30.6 | and has completed a PhD in the Neurobiology of Antidepressants |
| 0:34.6 | at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. |
| 0:38.4 | He is currently a clinical research fellow on the radar study run by University College London. |
| 0:44.8 | His research work focuses on pharmacologically informed ways of tapering patients off medication. |
| 0:51.2 | He plans to conduct studies examining the best methods for tapering medications |
| 0:55.0 | in order to develop evidence-based guidelines to assist patients and doctors. Dr. Horowitz is also |
| 1:02.2 | the co-author, along with Dr. David Taylor, of a recent article on antidepressant withdrawal, |
| 1:08.5 | which was published in Lancet's psychiatry and which we've written |
| 1:11.7 | about here at Madden America. Their article suggests that tapering off antidepressants over months or even |
| 1:17.4 | years is more successful at preventing withdrawal symptoms than the quick discontinuation of two to four |
| 1:23.1 | weeks. Dr. Horowitz, welcome. Great. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. So to start with, I'm curious about |
| 1:31.0 | what your background is and how you became interested in this subject. My background is obviously |
| 1:35.9 | in psychiatry and research, I guess as well as being a psychiatrist. I'm also a patient, |
| 1:42.4 | probably like a few people. And I only really became interested in this |
| 1:47.4 | topic when I experienced it firsthand. |
| 1:51.4 | So after many years of being on an antidepressant, I get the point I tried to come off, |
| 1:56.9 | probably I was on it for about 12 years. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mad in America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mad in America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.