Peter Groot, molecular geneticist and psychologist at UMC Utrecht, has been appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. The reason for this is his very important work for the responsible and safe tapering of drugs that can cause withdrawal symptoms. For this he developed so-called tapering strips, which professor of psychiatry at UMC Utrecht Jim van Os calls “probably the most important pharmacological innovation in the last 25 years.” Peter received the royal decoration yesterday from the hands of the mayor of Utrecht, Sharon Dijksma, during the National Psychosis Congress.
More than three million Dutch people use sleeping pills, painkillers and drugs against, for example, depression or schizophrenia. Many of them want to taper off, but often they don’t succeed. The commercial doses are usually far too high for slow discontinuation. A person may experience withdrawal symptoms; suddenly someone becomes depressed again, psychotic or the person experiences unbearable pain. The tapering strips ensure that the dose can be reduced responsibly and safely in many small steps and no withdrawal symptoms occur. Jim and Peter together demonstrated the effectiveness of tapering strips through research under the flag of the User Research Centre (research for, about and by experience experts of the UMC Utrecht, among others).
Over the past twenty years, Peter has worked tirelessly and largely selflessly to help patients stop medications that can cause withdrawal symptoms much more responsibly. And to make tapering strips available and reimbursed for patients. He was driven by his own experiences with tapering antidepressants and the challenges he encountered. In addition to his academic work, Peter also plays an important role in representing patients’ interests and has answered thousands of questions from both patients and professionals at home and abroad. Because a practical solution similar to the tapering strips is not available anywhere else in the world, more and more doctors from other countries are now prescribing the Dutch tapering strips.
Peter’s work has a huge international impact and was previously recognized with the award of the ISEPP Special Achievement Award 2019 by the International Society for Ethical Psychology. His opinion article “Antidepressant withdrawal can be a horrible experience – are tapering strips a potential solution?” was ranked fourth in the top 10 opinion pieces of 2020 in the UK, after three articles on COVID-19. Peter de Groot is retiring this year.
