Going cold turkey is always the worse way to wean off a SSRI, but the half-life of the drug is also a good indicator of the intensity of the withdrawal. Also, some people might eliminate a drug faster than others, so the result is surely harder on some that others.

Doctors that tells you how to reduce the SSRI/SNRI are following what's available on the market, and generally the gap between doses is always huge and gives a big gap and so bigger withdrawal. Once I asked to a pharmacist if he could make smaller doses and he answered me to be like a good junky and open the capsules and cut them myself. I was a bit shocked at the moment, but at least it costs me less that him having to do it a that helped me greatly to reduce a SNRI without feeling too much symptoms.

So a good advice, is look at the half-life of the drug you are taking, and be a good junky and split the capsules or have liquid form to reduce by small amount.

Half-Life of Specific SSRIs

- Fluoxetine (Prozac): 4 to 6 days, with its active metabolite norfluoxetine lasting 7 to 16 days.

- Sertraline (Zoloft): Roughly 22 to 36 hours.

- Citalopram (Celexa): About 36 hours.

- Escitalopram (Lexapro): About 27 to 32 hours.

- Fluvoxamine (Luvox): 17 to 22 hours.

- Paroxetine (Paxil): About 21 to 24 hours.

Half-Lives of Common SNRIs

- Venlafaxine (Effexor): About 5 hours for immediate-release (extended-release has an effective transit/clearance profile, though parent half-life remains short); its active metabolite (desvenlafaxine) has a half-life of about 11 hours.

- Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq): About 11 hours.

- Duloxetine (Cymbalta): About 12 hours (range of 8 to 17 hours).

- Levomilnacipran (Fetzima): About 12 hours.