ABLECHILD: Lifelong Sexual Dysfunction: The Silent Cost of SSRI Antidepressants

Lifelong Sexual Dysfunction: The Silent Cost of SSRI Antidepressants

Republished with permission from AbleChild.

If parents knew that the antidepressants being prescribed to their children would cause a life-long irreversible sexual dysfunction, would they still allow the drug to be prescribed? Many experts believe Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) is a real medical condition and are begging the FDA to warn the public of this serious adverse event associated with SSRI antidepressants.

AbleChild long has argued that the risk associated with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants far exceeds any benefit the drugs reportedly provide. Afterall, it’s really a no-brainer. The psychiatric diagnosis of depression is not based in science but, rather, based on a subjective understanding of reported behavior. Further, the pharmaceutical companies openly admit there is no understanding of exactly how the drugs “work” for any psychiatric diagnosis.

What is known is that there is a black box warning (the most serious warning provided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before a drug is pulled from the market) for increased suicidality associated with SSRI medications for populations under the age of 25. In fact, the SSRIs almost double the risk of suicide for people under the age of 25.

Of course, there are also a host of other dangerous side effects associated with SSRI use, including insomnia, abnormal dreams, agitation, hostility, hypomania, mania, personality disorder, abnormal thinking, depersonalization, manic reaction, paranoid reaction, psychosis and delusions to name a few.

Now, in addition to the above possible serious side effects, consider the fact that young children are being prescribed SSRIs that many experts believe may hinder normal sexual function… forever. Unfortunately, not knowing all of the possible adverse events associated with SSRIs has never been a hinderance for FDA approval. In fact, one might even say that it’s a kind of approve-the-drug-now-and-worry-about-the-dangers-later mentality at the nation’s foremost drug approval agency.

While there are dozens of SSRI antidepressants on the market, the label for Prozac (Fluoxetine), is the only antidepressant that comes close to warning about sexual dysfunction, explaining “the safety of fluoxetine treatment for pediatric patients has not been systematically assessed for chronic treatment longer than several months in duration. In particular, there are no studies that directly evaluate the longer-term effects of fluoxetine on the growth, development and maturation of children and adolescent patients.”

So, kids, like adults, are prescribed SSRIs for long-term use and, of course, weening off SSRIs is no picnic and, too often, not possible. But the point is that children may find themselves prescribed antidepressants as an adolescent, many years before puberty. There is early research that suggests that SSRIs may reduce or block activity of other brain chemicals that play a role in sexual function, may have an effect on the levels of testosterone and other hormones that regulate sexual function and because of the known blunting effect of antidepressants, intimate relationships may become difficult to obtain and maintain. In a sentence, children who take antidepressants prior to puberty may never know what a normal sexual experience is. And this says nothing of the emotional side effects associated with sexual dysfunction.

In 2018, 22 doctors and scientists submitted a petition to the FDA asking for PSSD to be listed as a possible adverse side effect of SSRIs/SNRIs. The case was dismissed with advocates of antidepressant use arguing that the sexual dysfunction was due to the ongoing mental illness. The typical response by the psychiatric industry when bad things happen. It’s not the drug or “treatment” …it’s the mental illness.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that sexual dysfunction occurs in about half of all patients who take SSRIs and PSSD has become so prevalent that the European Medicines Agency concluded that PSSD is a medical condition that persists after discontinuation of SSRIs/SNRIs and recommended that the product information for SSRIs/SNRIs be updated to make reference to reports of long-lasting sexual dysfunction after taking the medicines.

It is of interest that with greater use of the SSRIs and SNRIs the public is slowly being made aware of real medical conditions that are caused by the use of the antidepressants. For example, Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) is a neurological condition that is characterized by abnormal, involuntary movements caused by use of antipsychotic drugs. Like PSSD, Tardive Dyskinesia is not reversible.

It’s difficult to wrap your head around the fact that a person with TD will be susceptible to uncontrollable body movements for life because of a psychiatric drug and even more concerning to accept that a child may never know normal sexual feelings at appropriate ages because of a drug prescribed in adolescence.

But that is exactly what is being reported, and one has to wonder, then, about the ethics associated with those writing the prescriptions. What happened to “first do no harm?” If at all concerned that these drugs may leave children with serious sexual dysfunction, wouldn’t and shouldn’t the physician err on the side of safety? Remember PSSD is another adverse event on top of the many others including increased suicidality.

Daniel Demers, a Board Member of the PSSD Network, tells AbleChild that efforts to get a black box warning from the FDA so far have not been successful. But, it now is about making the public aware of the danger of PSSD to children. “I think, says Demers, “PSSD could put an end to psych drugging of children and maybe adults will think twice about taking them.” “It’s serious and PSSD,” says Demers, “is just like Tardive Dyskinesia… it is irreversible.”

When asked about the ethics associated with prescribing a drug with such dramatic, life-changing adverse events, Demers says “yes, it’s an ethics issue but doctors remain willfully blind to it.” “Europe,” explains Demers, “has instituted some official warning about PSSD, but the US has done nothing.” “It’s emotional, the kids don’t feel pleasure and psychiatrists blame it on the mental illness, but this is a real medical condition.”

AbleChild agrees that PSSD should be treated as a medical event, and the FDA needs to address PSSD and take the necessary steps to protect the nation’s children. It took decades to get the FDA to place black box warnings for suicidality on all antidepressants. The children of America cannot wait on this one. The FDA needs to err on the side of caution and get the warning about PSSD on the antidepressant labels now.

Be the Voice for the Voiceless

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.

What you can do.  Sign the Petition calling for federal hearings!

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