Abstract
Antidepressants, including tricyclics, monoamine oxidase inhibitors and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors cause sexual dysfunctions such as decreased sexual desire, erectile difficulties, and delayed ejaculation. Studies have shown that treatment with fluoxetine inhibits several components of sexual behavior in male rats. It is known that sexual experience improves the sexual behavior of male rats. Thus, the effects of sexual experience were examined in male rats during long-term treatment with fluoxetine or vehicle. Rats treated with 10mg/kg fluoxetine or vehicle daily (28 days) were observed for sexual behavior at the 14th, 21st, and 28th day of treatment. Long-term administration of fluoxetine increased the mount latency in control rats in the first session; no differences were observed in other parameters on the same day. Still in the control group, the mount and intromission latencies gradually decreased, whereas the number of intromissions and ejaculations increased over the sessions. The group in long-term treatment with fluoxetine also showed reduced mount and intromission latencies, although latencies remained significantly higher as compared to the control group. Fluoxetine-treated rats showed increased mount and intromission rates on the 28th day of treatment in relation to the first day. These data suggest that the impairment caused by long-term treatment with fluoxetine persists throughout the sessions despite the rats' sexual experience.
Highlights
Sexual dysfunction can be either a symptom of depressive illness or a side-effect of medications used to treat it
It is still unclear whether subjects affected by depression and with premature ejaculation are impaired in other domains of sexual function as a result of the treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and whether different SSRIs have a different impact on male sexuality (Madeo et al, 2008; Montejo et al, 2001; Montgomery, Baldwin, & Riley, 2002)
Patterson (1993) reports the frequency of sexual side-effects in patients medicated with SSRIs as being lower than 2%, while subsequent studies have shown that sexual dysfunction in patients using SSRIs is considerably more frequent (Althof et al, 1995; Madeo et al, 2008)
Summary
Sexual dysfunction can be either a symptom of depressive illness or a side-effect of medications used to treat it. According to MontejoGonzales et al (1997) only 14% of subjects treated with SSRIs spontaneously reported having sexual dysfunctions, but this percentage increases up to 58% when a specific query on sexual function is provided Such sexual side-effects affect the quality of life and may result in poor treatment compliance and the associated risk of relapse. The sub-chronic treatment with FLX attenuates the effects of acute FLX on sexual behavior (Sarkar, Hiegel, Ginis, Hilbun, & Uphouse, 2008), induces modest effects on estrous cyclicity and sexual behavior in Sprague Dawley rats (Maswood, Sarkar, & Uphouse, 2008) and disrupts food intake and estrous cyclicity in Fischer rats (Uphouse, Hensler, Sarkar, & Grossie, 2006) In male rats, it reduces sexual motivation (VegaMatuszcyk et al, 1998) and copulatory behavior (Frank et al, 2000). Sexual experience decreases the first mount and intromission latencies, the parameters related with previous learning (Cruz-Casallas, Nasello, & Felício, 2000).
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