Sex and Depression: In the Brain, if Not the Mind

As everyone knows, sex feels good.

Or does it? In recent years, I’ve come across several patients for whom sex is not just unpleasurable; it actually seems to cause harm.

One patient, a young man in his mid-20s, described it this way: “After sex, I feel literally achy and depressed for about a day.”

Otherwise, he had a clean bill of health, both medical and psychiatric: well adjusted, hard-working, lots of friends and a close-knit family.

Believe me, I could have cooked up an explanation very easily. He had hidden conflicts about sex, or he had ambivalent feelings about his partner. Who doesn’t?

But search as I could for a good explanation, I could find none. Though his symptoms and distress were quite real, I told him he did not have a major psychiatric problem that required treatment. He was clearly disappointed leaving my office.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Antipsychotic drugs linked to sexual function

Sexual dysfunction and hypogonadism are common in patients taking antipsychotics for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, according to findings published in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

In a cross-sectional analysis, Dr. Oliver D. Howes and colleagues from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, examined rates of sexual dysfunction and hypogonadism in 103 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder stabilized on antipsychotic medication for at least 6 months. They were compared with 62 normal controls recruited from primary care attendees and with 57 subjects recruited from a sexual dysfunction clinic.

READ MORE @ Reuters

Primary text: J Clin Psychiatry 2007;68:361-367.