About the Authors

Ruth E. Cooper

Contributed equally to this work with: Ruth E. Cooper, Michael Ashman

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

ruth.1.cooper@kcl.ac.uk

Affiliations NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, Faculty of Education, Health and Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

Michael Ashman

Contributed equally to this work with: Ruth E. Cooper, Michael Ashman

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

‡ MA considered as co-first author.

Affiliation Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

Jo Lomani

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Independent Researcher, United Kingdom

Joanna Moncrieff

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Research & Development Department, Goodmayes Hospital, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Essex, United Kingdom, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Anne Guy

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation All–Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, Secretariat 2016–19, 2020-Present, Westminster, United Kingdom

James Davies

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom, All–Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, Secretariat 2015–19, 2020-Present, Westminster, United Kingdom

Nicola Morant

Roles Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Mark Horowitz

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Research & Development Department, Goodmayes Hospital, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Essex, United Kingdom, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: RC is a Board Member of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal (IIPDW) and JD an associate member. JD is a secretariat member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence (APPG-PDD) and founding member of the Council for Evidence based Psychiatry. JM is co-chairperson of the Critical Psychiatry Network, a board member of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, chief investigator on the RADAR study of antipsychotic reduction funded by the UK government’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and co-investigator on the REDUCE study of antidepressant discontinuation also funded by the NIHR. MH reports that he is co-founder of Outro Health a digital clinic which helps people safely stop unnecessary antidepressants in Canada and North America. He has been commissioned to write the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry. He is co-investigator on the RELEASE trial in Australia investigating gradually stopping antidepressants in a hyperbolic manner. AG is an associate member of the IIPDW, a member of the Council for Evidence-based psychiatry, and the secretariat co-ordinator for the APPG-PDD secretariat 2016-19, 2020-present. MA, NM and JL declare no conflicts of interest. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, although there are restrictions to data availability (please see data availability statement)