Antidepressants diminish sex drive, study suggests

By The Canadian Press with The Daily News

TORONTO Canadians on widely prescribed antidepressants are setting
themselves up for some real downers in the bedroom.

Take Margaret, a 50yearold secretary whose sorry personal tales mirror a
new study that indicates the majority of the one million men and women on
moodlifting medications have sex and sleep problems.

"I was on a Prozaclike drug but it was giving me headaches, and I'd be
getting up at two in the morning and get agitated," Margaret said yesterday
after a news conference analysing the study.

"I also lost my desire for sex, and although my husband was understanding,
when you're depressed to begin with it makes matters worse."

Then there's the 40yearold man who could no longer rely on great sex as
the glue in his relationship with his girlfriend.

"His orgasms were pretty much the best thing he had going for him in his
life," said the man's psychiatrist, Dr. Irvin Wolkoff, who runs a private
practice and is a consultant for Bayview Community Services in Toronto.

"Through counselling and medication, he felt better and functioned better
at work and in social circumstances, but he paid a price for his stability
his sexual relationship with his girlfriend."

Wolkoff was part of a medical panel addressing a concern that's
increasingly coming out of the closet now that antidepressants are being
widely used in the treatment of mentalhealth problems.

"The survey confirms what physicians have been suspecting for some time now
that sex and sleep problems can be caused by antidepressant medications
as well as depression itself," he said about the mail poll of 1,376 men and
women.

It was conducted by the research firm Compas in conjunction with the
Canadian Mental Health Association and the Canadian Sex Research Forum
based in Montreal.

Sex therapist Dr. Pierre Assalian of Montreal General Hospital said there
are more than 20 antidepressants on the market.

The most commonly prescribed are Prozacrelated drugs which stimulate the
feelgood hormone serotonin, even though there are other antidepressants
with fewer side effects that cost about the same as Prozac.

The Compas survey indicates Canadians on Prozaclike drugs (known as
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are three times more likely to
have sex problems and twice as likely to suffer from sleep disorders than
the general public.

Depression is a debilitating brain disorder characterized by irritability,
loss of interest in activities, fatigue and feelings of worthlessness, so
patients can ill afford to abandon treatment, said Wolkoff.

The study said Atlantic Canadians don't get depressed as much as people in
other provinces, have less trouble sleeping and value their sex lives more.

Twenty per cent of Atlantic respondents reported depression, compared with
29 per cent in Quebec, 28 per cent in British Columbia, 25 per cent in
Ontario, and 22 per cent from the Prairies.

The study found Atlantic Canadians place a higher importance on a good sex
life and a good night's sleep. Atlantic Canadians also valued their sleep
more, 71 per cent compared with a 59 to 63 per cent range elsewhere.

While only 25 per cent to 34 per cent of Canadians in other regions said
good sex was important, 42 per cent of Nova Scotians said it mattered.