Persistence of Sexual Dysfunction Side Effects after Discontinuation of Antidepressant Medications: Emerging Evidence
Audrey S. Bahrick
The Open Psychology Journal2008
Venue reputation unverified
Summary (paraphrased)
Bahrick argues that the clinical convention — that SSRI/SNRI sexual side effects resolve on discontinuation — rests on an untested assumption rather than evidence. Reviewing post-marketing prevalence data and emerging case reports, she notes that real-world sexual side-effect rates far exceeded pre-marketing trial figures, and that persistent cases were already accumulating in the literature. The paper calls for systematic study of post-discontinuation sexual function and for honest informed-consent discussions with patients starting antidepressants.
Why it’s in the corpus
An early (2008) call to recognize persistent post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, by a researcher who later co-authored the diagnostic-criteria paper. Shows the argument's lineage.
Related records
- Peer-reviewed paper
Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction & other enduring sexual dysfunctions
David Healy · Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
Healy traces the history of enduring sexual dysfunction after antidepressants from 1991 regulator reports through the first formal PSSD descriptions in 2006, arguing the syndrome has major clinical, research, and regulatory implications that psychiatry has…
LIT-0222019PSSDLiterature sweep · Oct 2026 - Peer-reviewed paperSIDEfxHUB pick
Post-Finasteride Syndrome And Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Two Clinical Conditions Apparently Distant, But Very Close
Giatti, Silvia; Diviccaro, Silvia; Cioffi, Lucia; Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · 72
Argues PFS and PSSD share overlapping clinical features (sexual dysfunction, psychological complaints, sleep disorders) and likely common mechanisms involving neuroactive steroids, serotonin/dopamine/catecholamine signaling and gut microbiota, possibly…
PFS-0032024PFSPSSDCore corpus - Peer-reviewed paper
Post-finasteride syndrome and post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: two sides of the same coin?
Giatti, Silvia; Diviccaro, Silvia; Panzica, Giancarlo; Melcangi, Roberto Cosimo · Endocrine · 61(2):180-193
A review by the Milan group of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction and post-finasteride syndrome, which share symptoms that persist after the drug is stopped: a felt disconnection between brain and penis, loss of libido and sex drive, difficulty with erection and…
PFS-0062018PFSPSSDCore corpus