SHIFT Newsroom · UK
Antidepressant reviews: what the UK REDUCE programme teaches
UK archive · Original report: July 2025. The July 2025 research report examined supported discontinuation for selected, well patients. It does not suggest that everyone should stop treatment.
UK archive review · 13 September 2026. Original source: July 2025. This article revisits a UK development; it is not a new announcement today.
The people studied matter
REDUCE involved primary-care practices in England and Wales. The definitive trial included 330 people taking long-term antidepressants who were well, wanted to consider stopping and were not judged at high risk of relapse.
The intervention added tailored online information and telephone support to a medication review. The July 2025 report brings together the programme’s work, including results first published earlier. It should not be presented as a brand-new trial result today.
Support helped in some ways, not every way
At six months, discontinuation rates did not differ significantly between groups. The additional-support group reported better withdrawal symptoms and mental wellbeing. This distinction matters: a supportive experience and a higher rate of stopping are not the same outcome.
The selected participants are also crucial to interpretation. The results cannot simply be extended to people with current depression, higher relapse risk or other reasons to continue medication.
A review is a discussion, not a deadline
Our suggested questions are why treatment is continuing, what benefits and difficulties you have noticed, and when another review would be useful. If a change is appropriate, ask how the plan will be individualised and how to contact the prescriber if symptoms change.
Do not abruptly stop or create a taper from this article. The report itself emphasises the distinction between withdrawal and relapse and the role of professional support.
For SHIFT, the useful lesson is that the quality of a medication review matters more than treating discontinuation as a success target. Source: Kendrick and colleagues, Programme Grants for Applied Research 13(7), NIHR Journals Library, DOI 10.3310/BTBL3945.
Related UK reporting
Persistent depression: what the UK pramipexole trial found
Known facts
- The July 2025 research report examined supported discontinuation for selected, well patients. It does not suggest that everyone should stop treatment.