6 ms·

I don’t usually post here, especially on such personal topics, but feel I should. I’ve been on SSRIs and SNRIs for some time now (Pristiq, and now Zolof), and c

I don’t usually post here, especially on such personal topics, but feel I should. I’ve been on SSRIs and SNRIs for some time now (Pristiq, and now Zolof), and can definitely attest to the some of the changes described in the article. I clearly remember reading the documentation in full that came with both drugs before starting each, and the mentioned side effects were only mentioned in passing, along with possibly every other side effect imaginable, so it was very easy to dismiss - especially when you are in a place you know you need help out of. There was also no real warning of long term side effects from both doctors that have prescribed me. I guess I don’t have any real point, other than if you are considering anti-depressants do more research than I did before taking what you’ve been prescribed - and if in doubt get answers from your doctor, and failing that find a better doctor (if you can).

haolez 5y ago
In my case (Pristiq), it was a net positive. My libido decreased (but never desapeared) and I've never had erectile disfuncion so far. Totally worth it for me, with my specific metabolism.
300bps 5y ago
When I was in my mid-20s my doctor wanted me to take blood pressure medication because when I went to her office in the morning I had blood pressure of 150/110. I told her I wanted to see what I could do on my own first. I cut out salt and caffeine, increased potassium and exercised every day. I went back in two months and my blood pressure was 120/80. She took it four times because she didn't believe it. I think the primary thing was the caffeine - it just gives me a temporary but strong spike in blood pressure. Years later, a doctor prescribed me Lexapro. I actually picked up the prescription. But I never took it. I started exercising every day, started mindful meditation, removed sugar from my diet, read the book Learned Optimism and did the CBT-like work in there. Ended up never taking the SSRI but haven't had anxiety in 7 years. (btw Learned Optimism was recommended to me on HN). Some people definitely need medication - I worked with a guy in his early 20s that had cholesterol of 400+. I saw him eat oatmeal every day for breakfast and lunch and then saw his cholesterol go up to 420. I'm sure there are people that need SSRIs. But it does seem like doctors at least prescribed it to me when I didn't need it.
- speeder 5y ago
  Probably eating the oatmeal that made his cholesterol get higher. There are now tons of research coming out about how cereals (wheat and corn specially) are basically the culprit of a lot of diseases that in the past were blamed on "fat", and also that this past blame was partially due to corruption (for example coca-cola literally gave six digits money to Harvard scientists so they would lie and say sugar was safe and the culprit for people problems was meat).
  - shlant 5y ago
    > Probably eating the oatmeal that made his cholesterol get higher. I... don't think so https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/research-were-watching-whole-grain-oats-best-bet-for-lowering-cholesterol https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/research-were-wa... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007085247.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007085247.h... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5885279/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5885279/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108102225.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108102225.h... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394769/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394769/ > There are now tons of research coming out about how cereals (wheat and corn specially) are basically the culprit of a lot of diseases Care to share more on what you are referring to?
    - aserdf 5y ago
      (not op) for reference, 39g of oats contains 28g of carbohydrates. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/cholesterol/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you... - The biggest influence on blood cholesterol level is the mix of fats and carbohydrates in your diet—not the amount of cholesterol you eat from food. - Although it remains important to limit the amount of cholesterol you eat, especially if you have diabetes, for most people dietary cholesterol is not as problematic as once believed.
      - sizzle 5y ago
BoiledCabbage 5y ago
As a herbal observation, it seems like such a scam that medical pamphlets will list possible side-effects, but not frequencies. Knowing that one person in one thousand saw some issue is very different from 20% of people. Especially as almost every medication I've ever seen advertised has a list two pages long of possible side effects. How is a person supposed to make an informed judgment?
- sofixa 5y ago
  I don't know if it's the law here in France or just nice manufacturers, but I've seen side effects broken down by occurence rate ( 1 in 100,000: X, Y, Z; 1 in 1,000,000: A, B, C, etc.) multiple times.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago
  All US drugs have to include the rate of side effects in their clinical trials. Google "Product name prescribing information"
- watwut 5y ago
  The frequencies are there, they were in all pamphlets I read. It is a law.
- cwkoss 5y ago
  > herbal observation What does this mean?
  - foxyv 5y ago
    Autocorrected from honest or personal I believe.
    - BoiledCabbage 5y ago
      Yup, and I didn't catch it in time.
xattt 5y ago
Sertraline (Zoloft) often causes more sexual side effects in males than it does in females. I have seen this used at the max dose to control hypersexual behaviour in a patient with dementia.
- FilMo 5y ago
  First of all, I need to say I always pay attention to all side effects indicated. I really treat with caution every prescription I get. As for Sertraline, I noticed that the generic one I got from https://www.canadapharmacy.com/ https://www.canadapharmacy.com/ has less sides than the branded one. Don't know why there is the difference, but it still calms me down a bit.
- ljm 5y ago
  I spent about 18 months on sertraline. Even on the 'therapeutic' dose that I started off with, it basically nuked my ability to perform. Could still get an erection easily enough, the frustration was being unable to do anything with it. It wasn't that much better with fluoxetine, but with that I found that I could at least wait a few days to sort of build up the energy. As with another poster here, I'm happy being open about this stuff too. The first hurdle is opening up about mental health, I think that already puts you on a good track to take the shame away from the sexual aspect.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  It's also used to treat premature ejaculation. Side effects can be really useful in the right context.

haolez 5y ago

In my case (Pristiq), it was a net positive. My libido decreased (but never desapeared) and I've never had erectile disfuncion so far. Totally worth it for me, with my specific metabolism.

300bps 5y ago

When I was in my mid-20s my doctor wanted me to take blood pressure medication because when I went to her office in the morning I had blood pressure of 150/110. I told her I wanted to see what I could do on my own first. I cut out salt and caffeine, increased potassium and exercised every day. I went back in two months and my blood pressure was 120/80. She took it four times because she didn't believe it. I think the primary thing was the caffeine - it just gives me a temporary but strong spike in blood pressure. Years later, a doctor prescribed me Lexapro. I actually picked up the prescription. But I never took it. I started exercising every day, started mindful meditation, removed sugar from my diet, read the book Learned Optimism and did the CBT-like work in there. Ended up never taking the SSRI but haven't had anxiety in 7 years. (btw Learned Optimism was recommended to me on HN). Some people definitely need medication - I worked with a guy in his early 20s that had cholesterol of 400+. I saw him eat oatmeal every day for breakfast and lunch and then saw his cholesterol go up to 420. I'm sure there are people that need SSRIs. But it does seem like doctors at least prescribed it to me when I didn't need it.

speeder 5y ago
Probably eating the oatmeal that made his cholesterol get higher. There are now tons of research coming out about how cereals (wheat and corn specially) are basically the culprit of a lot of diseases that in the past were blamed on "fat", and also that this past blame was partially due to corruption (for example coca-cola literally gave six digits money to Harvard scientists so they would lie and say sugar was safe and the culprit for people problems was meat).
- shlant 5y ago
  > Probably eating the oatmeal that made his cholesterol get higher. I... don't think so https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/research-were-watching-whole-grain-oats-best-bet-for-lowering-cholesterol https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/research-were-wa... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007085247.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161007085247.h... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5885279/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5885279/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108102225.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108102225.h... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394769/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394769/ > There are now tons of research coming out about how cereals (wheat and corn specially) are basically the culprit of a lot of diseases Care to share more on what you are referring to?
  - aserdf 5y ago
    (not op) for reference, 39g of oats contains 28g of carbohydrates. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/cholesterol/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you... - The biggest influence on blood cholesterol level is the mix of fats and carbohydrates in your diet—not the amount of cholesterol you eat from food. - Although it remains important to limit the amount of cholesterol you eat, especially if you have diabetes, for most people dietary cholesterol is not as problematic as once believed.
    - sizzle 5y ago

BoiledCabbage 5y ago

As a herbal observation, it seems like such a scam that medical pamphlets will list possible side-effects, but not frequencies. Knowing that one person in one thousand saw some issue is very different from 20% of people. Especially as almost every medication I've ever seen advertised has a list two pages long of possible side effects. How is a person supposed to make an informed judgment?

sofixa 5y ago
I don't know if it's the law here in France or just nice manufacturers, but I've seen side effects broken down by occurence rate ( 1 in 100,000: X, Y, Z; 1 in 1,000,000: A, B, C, etc.) multiple times.
s1artibartfast 5y ago
All US drugs have to include the rate of side effects in their clinical trials. Google "Product name prescribing information"
watwut 5y ago
The frequencies are there, they were in all pamphlets I read. It is a law.
cwkoss 5y ago
> herbal observation What does this mean?
- foxyv 5y ago
  Autocorrected from honest or personal I believe.
  - BoiledCabbage 5y ago
    Yup, and I didn't catch it in time.

xattt 5y ago

Sertraline (Zoloft) often causes more sexual side effects in males than it does in females. I have seen this used at the max dose to control hypersexual behaviour in a patient with dementia.

FilMo 5y ago
First of all, I need to say I always pay attention to all side effects indicated. I really treat with caution every prescription I get. As for Sertraline, I noticed that the generic one I got from https://www.canadapharmacy.com/ https://www.canadapharmacy.com/ has less sides than the branded one. Don't know why there is the difference, but it still calms me down a bit.
ljm 5y ago
I spent about 18 months on sertraline. Even on the 'therapeutic' dose that I started off with, it basically nuked my ability to perform. Could still get an erection easily enough, the frustration was being unable to do anything with it. It wasn't that much better with fluoxetine, but with that I found that I could at least wait a few days to sort of build up the energy. As with another poster here, I'm happy being open about this stuff too. The first hurdle is opening up about mental health, I think that already puts you on a good track to take the shame away from the sexual aspect.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
It's also used to treat premature ejaculation. Side effects can be really useful in the right context.