Antidepressants are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in America. At last count, nearly 50 million Americans are taking medications such as sertraline, escitalopram, trazodone, bupropion, fluoxetine and duloxetine.

One of the more controversial issues involving antidepressants involves what doctors call withdrawal or discontinuation syndrome. The first alert that patients could experience unpleasant symptoms upon stopping antidepressants was published in the Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal in January 1959.

Since then, doctors have been debating whether stopping antidepressants suddenly can produce distressing symptoms.

A recent analysis of 50 studies found that stopping such medications could result in dizziness, nausea, vertigo and nervousness more often than stopping a placebo.

The authors conclude, however, that many reports of withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants have been overemphasized. They suggest that most of the time, such problems may not be clinically important.

Many of our readers would disagree. Here are just some of the hundreds of comments we have received over the decades.

One reader decided to “quit Effexor (venlafaxine) cold turkey. I have been off the drug five days and have been experiencing stomach cramps, nausea, indigestion, gas, emotional dives and brain zaps. These make driving a car scary because turning your head results in extreme dizziness.”

A registered nurse describes her own experience. “The symptoms I suffered were vertigo, nausea, diarrhea and subsequent constipation, anorexia, profuse perspiring often followed by feeling extreme chills, shooting pains in my head with any movement of my head (including blinking my eyes), muscle cramps, mood swings (irritability to weepy), palpitations, unsteadiness, insomnia, abdominal pains and fatigue.”

Another reader described her experience after taking Cymbalta (duloxetine) for six years to treat neuropathy and fibromyalgia. A job loss meant she could no longer afford it. “It took three weeks to come down from 120 milligrams to nothing. I’ve had brain zaps and violent outbursts resulting in hitting, screaming, throwing things and terrorizing the dogs. I’ve hit myself until there were bruises and destroyed things I loved. And I can barely remember it.

“My husband has hidden our guns and my medications because of the suicidal threats I’ve made over and over. I can’t sleep, my neuropathy is back with a vengeance and the pain from the fibro is worse than ever. The way I see it, the drug is like Hotel California: ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!'”

We have received countless similar stories from readers of this column. What almost everyone complains about is a lack of reliable information about how to taper off such drugs so that these symptoms can be avoided. Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the pharmaceutical industry has provided any meaningful details about how to discontinue such drugs safely.

One man described his strategy to get off duloxetine. Because this medication comes in capsules filled with tiny beads, he removed one additional bead a week to reduce his dose incrementally. It took him many months, but he was finally able to stop the drug entirely without suffering.

It is past time for the FDA to require research on safe strategies to help patients get off antidepressant medications.

In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of King Features, 300 W. 57th St., 41st Floor, New York, NY 10019, or email them via their website: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is “Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.”