Stopping antidepressants can cause side effects - Recognizing withdrawal symptoms and working with your doctor are key.

Ryan Yorke, now 21, started taking Paxil after an out-of-the-blue panic attack his freshman year of high school. At first it worked great. But he gained weight and had other problems -- he started acting up in school and failing classes, for example. So after a year, he -- along with his mother and his psychologist -- decided it was time to stop.

Every time he reduced his dose, things got out of control, says his mother, Laurie Yorke, a registered nurse and now an administrator of paxilprogress.org, an antidepressant-withdrawal support site.

After the first big dose drop, Ryan slashed his wrists in front of his mother in the living room. "It was a six-hour psychotic episode. He was quoting Shakespeare and saying he wanted to die," she recalls.

A few weeks later, after more gradual dose changes, Ryan was still so sensitive to light and sound that he taped shut the window shades in his bedroom. His memory and concentration were poor. He dropped out of school and got his GED later, after the withdrawal process was over.

Mental health professionals aren't sure how many people have problems when stopping antidepressant medication. It's not even clear how to define the cluster of withdrawal symptoms people report, or even what causes the effects. "It's a difficult corner of the field," says Dr. Kenneth Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School. "It's hard to know whether the person's depression is worsening or if they're having a variation on a discontinuation syndrome.

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Results of phase III study on Labopharm's novel antidepressant published in Psychiatry (Edgemont) Journal

Labopharm Inc. (TSX: DDS; NASDAQ: DDSS) today announced the publication of Extended Release Trazodone in Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study in the May 2009 issue of the journal Psychiatry (Edgemont) (Volume 6, Number 5) (www.psychiatrymmc.com). The results of this Phase III clinical trial (study 04ACL3-001), which were originally reported by the Company in February 2008, demonstrate clear benefits for Labopharm's novel antidepressant.

More than 120 million people around the world suffer from depression. Treatment is often challenging because response to antidepressant drug therapy can vary significantly. Clinically depressed patients are typically treated with two different types of drug therapy: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)). However, some 40 to 50% of patients being treated for depression stop taking these antidepressant drugs within the first 12 months of treatment. Frequently cited reasons for discontinuing therapy include suboptimal efficacy on depression symptoms, exacerbation of sleep disturbance, increased agitation, slow onset of action, sexual dysfunction and weight gain.

Labopharm's novel formulation of the antidepressant trazodone is designed to optimize the efficacy of trazodone, and address the major challenges in treating depression.

Summary of Results of Labopharm's Phase III Clinical Trial on Trazodone

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