Sex and the survey: What we learned from readers who take antidepressants

> Read Other News

Sex and the survey: What we learned from readers who take antidepressants There’s a great episode from the first season of the HBO TV series "Sex and the City" in which prim Charlotte starts dating a former lover of Carrie’s. Carrie warns her friend: "He’s a sex maniac." But after three weeks of dating, the guy has laid nary a finger on Charlotte. What gives? Turns out that sometime after he and Carrie parted ways, he started taking the antidepressant Prozac to deal with some anger issues. Now he’s calm, cool, and contented as a clam. And has the sex drive of a footstool. The show dealt with the topic in a humorous way, but sexual side effects—a decrease in either the desire for sex or the ability to perform sexually—are the most common problem associated with antidepressant drugs, and not everyone is as OK with them as Charlotte’s beau. In a our recent Consumer Reports National Research Center survey, 31 percent of people taking an SSRI antidepressant such as fluoxetine (Prozac and generic), sertraline (Zoloft and generic), or citalopram (Celexa and generic) said they’d experienced a loss in sexual interest or ability since starting the drug, and 36 percent of those taking an antidepressant from the related SNRI class, which includes venlafaxine (Effexor and generic) and duloxetine (Cymbalta), reported that problem. Those rates are double to triple what’s typically reported in the trials submitted by drug companies for Food and Drug Administration approval, and which appear in the patient inserts you get when you fill a prescription. What could account for the discrepancy? I called Anita Clayton, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia who has done extensive research on the sexual side effects of antidepressants and how to cope with them. One reason for the comparatively lower rates of sexual side effect rates in pharmaceutical company trials is that in most of them, researchers don’t directly ask participants about sexual function but rather rely on participants to volunteer that information. If the participant doesn’t bring it up, it doesn’t get recorded, and given the obvious sensitivity of the topic, a person may feel hesitant to bring it up. That may be especially true among women: "Men are more likely to report orgasm difficulties than women, who report more problems with arousal and excitement," Clayton says. "And men are more likely than women to think it’s due to the medication; women tend to blame themselves." In any case, our results underscore the importance of talking to your doctor about side effects if you’re beginning an antidepressant or any other drug. If you feel concerned in particular about the drug’s potential to diminish your sex drive or performance, make sure your doctor knows that; he or she may suggest starting with bupropion (Wellbutrin and generic), which according to our survey has lower rates of sexual side effects than SSRIs and SNRIs. (Note that it has approval only for treating depression, not anxiety.) —Jamie Kopf Hirsh, associate editor Read the full report, learn more about treating depression and anxiety, and access our free Best Buy Drugs report on antidepressants.

Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products.

Update your feed preferences

Submitted @ 2010-06-08