Giovanni Andrea Fava , MD, is currently Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York. He has authored more than 500 scientific papers on depression, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and psychosomatic medicine. He has introduced a novel psychotherapeutic approach (Well-Being Therapy. Basel, Karger, 2016), the sequential model for combining pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, the concept of staging in psychiatry, the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research, and new methods of psychiatric evaluation. He is also editor-in-chief of the top journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. As an investigator, he has published groundbreaking research on antidepressant drug discontinuation . As an editor, he has published key papers that have suggested a reconsideration of the problem and modification of the guidelines.

• 1: Gaining Insight of the Problem


• 2: The Clinical Manifestations of Withdrawal Following Antidepressant Drugs Discontinuation


• 3: The Associated Clinical Manifestations of Behavioral Toxicity


• 4: Understanding the Pathophysiology of Withdrawal Syndromes


• 5: The Decision of Discontinuing Antidepressants


• 6: The Setting of Guided Antidepressant Discontinuation


• 7: The Role of Clinical Assessment


• 8: Pharmacological Strategies and Options


• 9: First Psychotherapeutic Module: Explanatory Therapy


• 10: Second Psychotherapeutic Module: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy


• 11: Third Psychotherapeutic Module: Well-Being Therapy


• 12: Prevention of Dependence and Withdrawal with Antidepressant Medications


• 13: A Different Psychiatry is Possible

The handbook guides clinicians through the challenge of discontinuing antidepressants in their patients, by providing updated information that may help to determine if discontinuation of antidepressant drugs is feasible for a patient; what the counter-indications would be for stopping or continuing; and how discontinuation can be achieved.