A recent article in the DailyMail focused on what many who take antidepressants are reporting as sexual dysfunction. Apparently, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), antidepressants not only cause people to feel nothing – not good, not bad -they also are unable to experience sexual pleasure…and it could be permanent.

The problem, of course, is more than sexual dysfunction. The bigger problem is that there is a risk of the psycho/pharma industry making the reported sexual dysfunction a mental illness, rather than call it what it is: an adverse effect of the SSRI drugs taken as “treatment” for depression. After all that’s what the psycho/pharmaceutical industry does…finds ways to profit from people’s feelings, even when those feelings are caused by that industry.

In fact, it is of interest that the DailyMail article refers to sexual dysfunction as a “condition,” writing the “American Psychiatric Association (APA) to help psychiatrists diagnose conditions states ‘in some cases, SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction may persist after agent (SSRI antidepressant) is discontinued.’” AbleChild cannot stress enough that the reported sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressant “treatment” is an adverse effect of the drug…not a mental disorder and certainly not something that needs to be “treated” with another mind-altering, mind-numbing drug.

Unfortunately, the inability to experience sexual pleasure is referred to as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and these adverse antidepressant side effects are not new. An increasing number of people are reporting experiencing PSSD, with symptoms that include genital dysfunction, loss of libido, difficulty or inability to reach orgasm and feeling muted or no sexual pleasure. 

Some refer to PSSD as “emotional blunting,” but AbleChild would argue that antidepressants have long been reported to leave people feeling nothing. The overall feeling that comes with the antidepressant “treatment” is emotional blunting. It would appear that the answer from the psycho/pharma industry is that if someone is depressed, that can be “treated” by providing mind-altering drugs that make a person feel nothing. The patient won’t be depressed. The patient will feel nothing. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been aware of the emotional blunting, including sexual dysfunction associated with SSRIs for years but, unlike its counterparts in Europe, has failed to warn the public. But this is typical of the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry’s control over it. Recall that it took decades for the federal drug approval agency to approve the Black Box Warning for suicidality caused by antidepressant use. One can only wonder how many died because of the FDA’s lack of action on that front. 

Now, however, one also must wonder how many will take their lives due to the sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressants? Daniel Demers, a Board Member of the PSSD Network, a 20,000 strong support group for PSSD sufferers, explains what happens in real life to those who are suffering with this drug adverse side effect. “At a bare minimum,” explains Demers, “the FDA must add a boxed warning for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD).” “The agency’s failure,” says Demers, “to take a proactive approach to drug safety monitoring and labeling has contributed to untold preventable harm—including suicides that would certainly have been avoided if the FDA never approved these antidepressant drugs in the first place.” 

Demers explains what happened to a PSSD sufferer. “Mary Amelia Koback was born in 1998 in Montgomery County, Maryland, just miles from FDA headquarters. By then, Prozac—the first SSRI—had been on the market for over a decade, and the agency had already received reports of persistent sexual dysfunction linked to the drug. In 2011, pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly, informed the FDA of such cases from its clinical trials. Yet Mary, like millions of other Americans, was never warned of this risk.”

Demers says that “on October 25, 2018, she submitted the following public comment to the FDA: PSSD is the worst thing that can happen to a person. After taking Zoloft, my genitals felt completely numb and my emotions completely disappeared. I went from being a sexual, outgoing, cheerful person to having 0 emotions and 0 sexuality. In addition to all of the terrible withdrawal symptoms I experienced (and am still experiencing at over 2 years off Zoloft), PSSD has ruined every aspect of my life. Thanks for listening!”

Despite Koback’s public comments and call for help, Demers reveals that “exactly one year later, Mary took her own life. She had only just turned 21.  If she hadn’t taken that fateful decision over 6 years ago, Mary would be 27 years old today, only to realize that the FDA still hasn’t bothered to listen.” 

So, the FDA’s failure to address what is clearly an adverse event associated with one class of the agency’s approved drugs is standard operating procedure. It’s a kind of laissez-faire attitude in line with “oh, well, what’s a few deaths compared to all the help the drugs are providing.”  

Along with that same government agency mentality, one must wonder how many people have reported the emotional and sexual blunting associated with antidepressants to the FDA’s MedWatch system? It’s difficult to know what the FDA is aware of given that the federal agency does virtually nothing to make the public aware of a publicly available system for reporting adverse drug reactions. 

The question really is how many people will be harmed while the FDA does nothing? How many people will take their lives over this very serious sexual blunting while the FDA does nothing? Ironically, the deep thinkers at the FDA took only four years to approve the first SSRI antidepressant Prozac.

AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

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