The New York Times (11/9, Ghorayshi) reports physicians “and patients have long known that antidepressants can cause sexual problems,” but now “a small but vocal group of patients is speaking out about severe sexual problems that have endured even long after they stopped taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most popular type of antidepressants.” When patients report such issues – “like the distinctive symptom of genital numbness – the signal should not be dismissed, said” American Psychiatric Association Council on Research Chair Jonathan Alpert, MD, PhD. Dr. Alpert points to similar side effects experienced by patients who have taken the hair loss drug finasteride or acne medication isotretinoin. These “may point to a common biological mechanism, Dr. Alpert said.”
The New York Times (11/9, Ghorayshi) reports in a second article that when the “S.S.R.I.s went on the market in the late 1980s, patients began telling their psychiatrists that they were having sexual problems.” Dr. Jonathan Alpert said, “Only in going back and looking more carefully and gathering more data did we realize that actually those serotonergic drugs, the older ones, also caused sexual dysfunction.” Still, “in many cases, the problems caused by the medications can be managed.” For instance, “adding the non-S.S.R.I. antidepressant Wellbutrin, which acts on norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, has been shown to diminish sexual symptoms in many patients, Dr. Alpert said.”
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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)