Priorities for future research on tapering psychiatric medicines: A collaborative workshop involving people with lived experience, family members, and healthcare professionals
A growing number of people with experience of mental health problems want to reduce and stop their use of psychiatric medicines, such as antidepressants and anti-anxiety tablets. There are many reasons for this ranging from side-effects to people feeling that the medicine is no longer needed. Tapering is the recommended process for reducing and stopping psychiatric medicines. It involves gradually decreasing the dose over time to reduce the risk of withdrawal symptoms. However, there are many questions/uncertainties about this process. We think it is important that future research focuses on questions/uncertainties that matter to key stakeholders (people with lived experience of taking and/or stopping these medicines, family members/carers, healthcare professionals).
The purpose of this event is to produce a Top 10 list of priorities for future research on tapering psychiatric medicines. We will do this by bringing together a panel of 25 key stakeholders for a collaborative workshop. An independent chairperson will run the workshop and make sure that all stakeholders’ voices are heard. During the workshop, a list of unanswered questions/uncertainties about tapering psychiatric medicines will be presented and discussed. This list is based on our previous research involving an online survey of almost 1000 key stakeholders. The workshop attendees will work together to discuss and rank the importance of the questions/uncertainties and agree on a list of priorities for future research.
A summary report and lay summary of the list of priorities for future research will be shared with a wide range of target audiences. These will include international organisations representing each key stakeholder group, research funders, and policy makers. The report will be published on our project website (www.tapersafer.org) with a short video summary to ensure the findings reach a wider audience. An article will be published in a peer-reviewed research journal that is free to access.
- Award Date
- 05 April 2023
- Award Value
- €5,000
- Principal Investigator
- Dr Cathal Cadogan
- Host Institution
- Trinity College Dublin
- Scheme
- Conference and Event Sponsorship Scheme