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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Antidepressants Hinder Male Orgasm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Certain antidepressant medications may impede male sexual function and orgasm, researchers report. "Difficulty reaching orgasm and loss of orgasm satisfaction in men treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) appear to be side effects of medication," conclude researchers at Cornell University Medical College in New York. SSRI antidepressants (which include Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil) slow the reabsorption of serotonin, a mood-governing neurotransmitter released by nerve cells within the brain. But recent studies have revealed that between 4% to 10% of men enrolled on SSRI therapy experience subsequent difficulties in achieving either erection or orgasm. The Cornell research, which appears in the current issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, focused on the sexual activity of 14 women and 11 men, each of whom were being treated for depression with SSRI medications such as sertraline (Zoloft) or paroxetine (Paxil). Seventy-six percent of the study participants reported being involved in a sexual relationship during the study period, and were asked to assess their level of sexual performance both before and after a six-week course of antidepressant therapy. The researchers found that while the "depressed women experienced... improvement in sexual functioning with treatment," the men in the study "experienced worsening sexual functioning," with many men citing difficulties reaching orgasm. Another study, reported in the magazine New Scientist, may be honing in on the neurological roots of the problem. Dr. Elaine Hull, of the State University of New York at Buffalo, believes SSRIs slow the reabsorption of serotonin in an area of the brain called the lateral hypothalamus. She found that serotonin levels in the lateral hypothalami of male rats rise sharply just after ejaculation, and drop just before the rats begin to engage in a new round of sexual activity. This led her to speculate that SSRI interference with hypothalamus serotonin reabsorption might contribute to male sexual dysfunction. Hull injected a Prozac-like drug into the hypothalami of a group of male rats, each of whom had just completed the sex act. She found that, despite having ready access to receptive females, the treated rats took three times as long as their untreated brethren to resume a new bout of sexual activity. Hull believes her research might help pharmaceutical researchers develop antidepressants which do not have the sexually-inhibiting side effects of current therapies. SOURCE: The American Journal of Psychiatry (1997;154(12):1757-1759); New Scientist (Dec. 6, 1997, p. 18) 1997, Reuters Health eLine <http://www.medscape.com/reuters/tue/t1208-1f.html> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- janet [log in to unmask]