This Daily Mail article highlights the recent warnings of the EMA and their decision to add persistent sexual dysfunction into all SSRI/SNRI side effect labels. Now we wait for the US and other countries to follow through!

The article “Antidepressants were supposed to help me but they ended up making me impotent” by Daryl Brown is about the suffering of PSSD that a victim describes has significantly affected his life. As a child, the sufferer was placed on antidepressants, and by the age of 21 he was completely numb and impotent. The victim saw a neurologist in London who then diagnosed him with Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD). The doctor claimed to have seen a lot of these cases, so to see this continue years after this article was published is quite concerning.

The article ‘After taking antidepressants, my genitals felt numb’ by Anonymous discusses the experience of a woman who developed PSSD after discontinuing her antidepressant. “Its been 8 years and the sexual side effects haven’t improved” says the sufferer who has been battling the condition since 2010. While this article was published to the Guardian in 2018, PSSD has been causing the destruction of relationships and marriages and continues to do so as of 2024.

The article “Lasting Sexual Problems Ruined A Marriage” by Terry Graedon states that sometimes, persistent sexual dysfunction will continue for months and years. This piece features the experience of a PSSD sufferer who states that he lost his marriage during his ongoing battle of living with PSSD, he fears that this is permanent. Graedon explains that there is no treatment for PSSD, and cites multiple sources to backup her statement. After reading the article, a comment section lies beneath with other sufferers sharing their experience as well.

The article “Depression Pills Sabotaged My Love Life” by Katinka Newman describes the experience of a woman prescribed Lexapro for insomnia while dealing with a divorce. The woman had suffered an adverse reaction to the drug, resulting in homicidal thoughts of killing her children. She was taken to an emergency center and tried on different drugs, only to find out that her sexual dysfunction persisted after stopping the drug. Fortunately, she regained this after a month, however she discusses how she had come across a support group online for PSSD. She states that she was lucky to not experience it, however another sufferer within the article describes his experience after living with it for over a decade.

The article published in the Yellow Bulletin of the ‘Catalâ Institute of Pharmacology Foundation’ describes medications including antidepressants and finasteride, which can cause sexual dysfunction. When this dysfunction persists after the cessation of treatment and lasts for months, years or indefinitely, it is quite worrying. Researchers are still puzzled on what causes the removal of libido, pleasure, and genital anesthesia among other side effects. There are some theories in the air explaining potential serotonergic inhibitory activity that influences the liberación de dopamina mesolimbica related to the Sexual behavior.

The article “The Pill That Kills Your Sex Drive” by Paul John Scott discusses the effect of sexual dysfunction while on antidepressants, however a man within the article describes his experience of living with PSSD for 5 years. While PSSD is mentioned and discussed in the article, emotional blunting is also mentioned along with the reason why that happens after using SSRI’s. As this article was published in 2014, Dr. David Healy was interviewed and claimed that PSSD reports were becoming more common.

Fast forward a decade later (2024), PSSD is finally becoming recognized and added into side effect labels.

The article “Buried Alive: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)” explains the existence of PSSD since the 90’s, and the denial of harms from the pharmaceutical companies. A sufferer gets the opportunity to share his story from 2005. This 2013 article is proof that the denial of prescribed harm still exists and urgently needs to be investigated.

The Streetvibes Newspaper had featured an article of a PSSD sufferer from Philadelphia, PA in 2010. The sufferer had graduated from Penn State University, and went on to live in Philadelphia where he was then placed on an antidepressant for anxiety. Before experiencing PSSD, he was given antipsychotics which induced Tardive Dyskinesia. After some time, he discontinued the medications which resolved the symptoms, however he was then tried on Lexapro. The sufferer described the beginning of taking Lexapro as an LSD trip, which then went downhill afterwards. Within two weeks of using the drug, the sufferer began to experience sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting, prompting him to discontinue the drug. These side effects persisted for the remaining 9 months of his life, PSSD.

The article “Prozac-like antidepressants can lead to lingering sexual dysfunction” by Teresa Graedon & Joe discusses the common occurrence of sexual dysfunction in those taking antidepressants. Within the article however, there is a mention of PSSD with literature attached towards the end of the article. This 2008 piece discusses how sexual dysfunction can persist indefinitely after stopping the drug, yet nothing has changed as of 2024.