These comments are made for the purpose of discussion and should NOT be used as recommendations for or against therapies or other treatments. An individual patient is always advised to consult their own physician.
Anti-Depressants – Paxil/Zoloft
Question: I was recently diagnosed as depressed and prescibed paxil; it was
effective however I found I could not achieve orgasm. I stopped the paxil for three days and returned to a “normal” depressed state. I began taking the paxil again and the sexual disfunction returned however the efficacy of the drug decreased. I am interested in the new drugs in the ssri class
which do not have as pronounced an effect on sexual libido.
Answer: The newer classes of anti-depressives are thought to act through the action of serotonin. The unfortunate effect among the initial entries in this class was a decrease in sexual drive. There are newer drugs in this class like Serzone which are more selective in their effect and have less libido loss as a consequence. These drugs have been available about 6-8 months. The patients I have switched from Paxil to this class of drugs report a marked improvement in sexual drive.
