Search for antidepressant-related symptoms

Side effects and symptoms are common in everyday life and also when people are taking antidepressants. If you are looking to learn more about symptoms experienced whilst taking antidepressants, this might be the resource for you!

Advantages of using this website

For patients, the Dictionary of Adverse Events is a freely available resource to identify adverse events that they may experience or have experienced and learn about what they mean. This Dictionary was co-designed with a panel of lived experience experts to make it as patient-friendly as possible.
The website can help empower patients to communicate their experience of adverse events more accurately during their journeys of antidepressant treatment. With a shared language, patients may more confidently engage in shared decision-making with their clinicians.
For clinicians, the Dictionary may help them to better understand and communicate with their patients about the experience of adverse events during antidepressant treatment. This may help clinicians to engage in shared decision-making and potentially tailor their decisions to the individual patient.
The digital format of this website should enhance accessibility to users, and in theory, be accessible to anyone in the world with a mobile phone or computer and an Internet connection without local restrictions on the usage of this website.
The accessibility of this website means it may be used by clinicians and patients together during in-person or remote clinical sessions to facilitate their discussion and decision-making. The information contained within this website does not constitute medical advice but may help to facilitate a discussion and indirectly lead to a shared decision, created by the clinician together with the patient.

How to use this website: a step by step guide

Example scenario

Jane was recently diagnosed with depression by her GP who started her on sertraline (a commonly prescribed antidepressant).
The day after she starts taking the medication, she begins experiencing pain in her tummy. She wants to discuss it with her doctor, to find out whether it may be related to the medication, how long it might last or if other antidepressant options might have a lower risk of causing tummy pains. However, Jane is not sure how best to describe her experience or how to bring it up with her GP.

Step 1

Before her appointment, Jane accesses the Dictionary of Adverse Events and searches ‘tummy pain’

Step 2

This brings up the term ‘abdominal pain/discomfort’ in the Dictionary which sounds about right

Step 3

Just to make sure, Jane also checks the definition, which is also available along with the term, which states the following:

"Pain or discomfort felt anywhere between the chest and groin, in the area often called the stomach region or belly (also reported as tummy pain or belly pain) "

Step 4

It also generates a link to an online NHS resource about stomach ache or abdominal pain, for further informations:

"Further informations >"

Step 5

Jane finds that this describes the experience she would like to report to her GP, and is confident in describing her experience as ‘abdominal pain/discomfort’ or ‘tummy pain’, and that this is consistent with the definition she read on the website

Step 6

Jane makes a note of this and feels more prepared to discuss this symptom with her GP during her clinical consultation

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