Sexual Dysfunction From Anti-Depressants PSSD with Dr Josef Witt-Doerring

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What do you think is one of the worst things that can happen to a person who's taking antidepressants? So, it would be a side effect called PSSD, which is post SSRI sexual dysfunction. Now, in a small group of people who take these medications, uh well, actually, let me say this. About 70% of people who take SSRIs will have some sexual dysfunction. That's normal. It's widely acknowledged. But what most people believe is that it will completely go away when they come off the drug. That's not true

for a fraction of people. They will continue to have um sexual dysfunction afterwards. Um and obviously, that can be completely devastating in a relationship. I mean, if you're having difficulties um uh maintaining an erection if you're a man, or uh feeling connected, or um having that libido that you used to have, this can really get in the way of a relationship. And unfortunately, for some people, it's permanent. And this is a this issue This is not fringe at all. This is now in the drug labels

of antidepressants around the world. In the EU, in Canada, in Hong Kong, in Australia, all of these major regulators are now putting this in the drug labels to warn young people when they get on these medications that they may develop sexual dysfunction that does not go away. What kind of sexual dysfunctions do people experience as a result from being on antidepressants? And are some of them permanent, some of them temporary, but what specifically happens to create these sexual dysfunctions? Yeah, so uh so, the serotonin system

is is involved in arousal, and and multiple different things can happen. And so, if we go down and we kind of talk about just like the mechanics of it, I mean, we we see things like um um uh difficulty maintaining an erection if you're a man. Uh there can be um uh you know, muted orgasms as well, so sex becomes less pleasurable. Um and there's also, you know, uh less interest, lower libido. But there's also a an emotional component, which is really important. So, one of

the problems with taking antidepressants is it can be emotionally blunting, and then you're less attuned to your partner. Now, obviously, having very tight emotional attunement with someone who you've been intimate with, I mean, that's kind of the whole fun of it, you know, is being really connected there. And And that kind of blunts that, and it takes it down. So, it kind of hits it at multiple levels. Now, for most for 70% of people when they take SSRI antidepressants, they will experience some degree of sexual

dysfunction, but that will go away when they come off the drug for most of them. But there is a small group of people, and we and we don't even know how to identify them before they go on the drug, that the sexual functioning does not return after they come off. And that's something to be very concerned

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