Posted by lars1 on February 4, 2005, at 6:12:42
In reply to Long-term sexual side effects after quitting SSRIs, posted by Vornan19 on February 3, 2005, at 21:51:25
Hi Vornan,
My yahoo ID is the same as my full name, so I can't easily join that group without losing anonymity, and in any case I'm too impatient to wait for a moderator to approve membership. Anyway, here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head:
1. In another thread, someone (you?) hypothesized that SSRI's may reduce dopamine/norepinephrine long-term. If so, the solution might be a drug that boosts DA/NE, such as Wellbutrin, perhaps on an as-needed basis. Even if the hypothesis about DA/NE turned out to be wrong, Wellbutrin has been shown to have pro-sexual effects and might still work.
2. SSRI's can make it difficult to have an erection, and even if you do manage to keep it up, you may not have an orgasm. This is no fun, and over time, it conditions you to expect that sex will be no fun. You may then lose interest in sex (this happened to me, BTW), and stopping the SSRI will not automatically undo this conditioning. Also, concern about your performance can itself cause erection problems, so that they may become self-perpetuating. In this case, the solution might be short-term use of Viagra (or Levitra or Cialis) to break the vicious cycle. Once you were functioning OK, you could gradually taper the dose of Viagra.
Well, if it were really that easy, there probably wouldn't need to be a whole board devoted to the subject. But there it is.
Lars
poster:lars1
thread:452817
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050202/msgs/452983.html