Sex problems are a known side-effect of depression pills — but one that affected patients say they weren’t properly warned about by their doctors.
Worse, for some, these problems can last for years, even after they’ve eventually come off their medication.
Yet campaigners say patients’ complaints have largely fallen on deaf ears, with the medical profession and drug companies either saying that the symptoms were not connected to the tablets, or assuring patients their problems would disappear once they stopped taking them.
But, today, in a victory for these very patients and the Daily Mail, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced it’s now advising that a commonly prescribed group of depression pills — namely, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — should carry warnings about the risk of longer term enduring sexual dysfunction.
Update: The European Medicines Agency has announced it’s now advising that a commonly prescribed group of depression pills — namely, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — should carry warnings about the risk of longer term enduring sexual dysfunction
At the moment, SSRI patient information leaflets warn about the possibility of short-term sexual problems, but not that there can be long-term issues or that these may persist, even after the medication has been stopped.
The EMA’s move has been welcomed by patients and experts who’ve supported them — as Katinka Blackford Newman, a documentary filmmaker and author of The Pill That Steals Lives, explains: ‘The EMA decision will help get this information about the risk of sexual problems — short- and long-term — out there. This is a victory for campaigners, who have been lobbying so hard on this.’
She added: ‘It’s been fantastic that the Daily Mail listened to stories of people who have suffered as a result of antidepressant use. I’m incredibly grateful to the news-paper for being brave enough to publicise these issues, at the time when patients were being told any sex problems were as a result of their depressive illness and not the pills.’
SSRIs are prescribed to an estimated five million Britons for depression and anxiety. They include paroxetine (brand names, Paxil, Seroxat), fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro) and vortioxetine (Trintellix).
These drugs are a lifesaver for many people. However, the risk of sexual problems has been downplayed or ignored say campaigners — one 2001 study estimated that 50 per cent of those taking SSRIs are affected to some degree, although product leaflets suggest just 10 per cent experience some temporary loss of sexual function.
There has been no acknowledgement of the risk of long-term and, sometimes, permanent, problems. Symptoms of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) include failure to become aroused or orgasm, numbness and loss of genital sensation, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.
It’s an issue that Good Health has reported on extensively, as part of our campaign for greater support for patients affected by their prescription drugs.
Did you know? Symptoms of Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) include failure to become aroused or orgasm, numbness and loss of genital sensation, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation
One who has suffered sexual problems as a result of depression pills is Kevin Bennett. He was prescribed SSRIs for four months at the age of 18.
Now 41, Kevin, who is single and a support worker for disabled people in Surrey Hill, County Durham, became impotent within days of taking SSRIs for anxiety after dropping out of his A-levels. ‘I kept waiting for everything to return to normal after I stopped taking them, but it never did,’ he says.
A locum GP told him it was a symptom of depression and nothing to do with the drug.
‘I didn’t go back to see him again until I was 26,’ says Kevin.
‘I didn’t have sex again until I was 27 after I was prescribed injections of a drug called alprostadil to help me get an erection.’ Kevin had investigations with two urologists and one eventually concluded that his problems could not be attributed to anything other than his course of SSRIs.
‘Had I known that SSRIs were going to permanently ruin my sex life I never would have taken them. People need to know what they are putting themselves at risk of.’
The EMA announcement follows a petition from the patient pressure group RxISK, which campaigns to highlight harmful drug side-effects. The petition called for all SSRIs to carry warnings about sexual dysfunction.
David Healy, a professor of psychiatry at Bangor University and founder of RxISK, says the agency’s decision reflects increasing recognition of the harm that SSRIs can cause.
‘We submitted a petition to the EMA and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration a year ago, calling for these side-effects to be mentioned on drug labels and leaflets,’ he says.
‘There is compelling evidence that SSRIs can cause longstanding sexual dysfunction but, at the moment, this is not mentioned on
