Your donations are needed to fund scientific research into post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) and other enduring sexual dysfunctions. The aim is to better understand the biology of these conditions and hopefully find treatments.
£44,423 raised of £50,000 goal
321 donations
The conditions
Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) is a condition in which sexual side effects don’t resolve after stopping certain types of antidepressants (inc. SSRIs, SNRIs and some tricyclics). In some cases, the sexual side effects only emerge upon stopping the antidepressant.
The condition affects men and women of all ages and causes genital numbness, pleasureless orgasm, loss of sex drive, impotence and other difficulties. It can start after only a few days of taking an antidepressant and in some cases persists for decades. There is currently no treatment.
It can lead to relationship and family breakup, job loss, and suicide.
There are other related conditions:
- Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) which can be triggered by stopping SSRIs.
- Post-finasteride syndrome (PFS) caused by finasteride, a medication used to reverse hair loss in young men.
- Post-retinoid sexual dysfunction (PRSD) caused by isotretinoin, a medication used in the treatment of acne.
The fund
Our research fund was launched on 21 June 2022 with the aim of facilitating scientific research into PSSD and other enduring sexual dysfunctions. Donations are made to Centre for Data Based Medicine, a registered charity in England and Wales.
All major cards are accepted, or you can pay using a PayPal account. If you have any difficulty donating, please contact us.
The total is updated manually by our team, so don’t worry if your donation doesn’t appear immediately.
Please note that our research fund is not affiliated with any other group. All projects currently supported by our fund are described below. We are not necessarily committed to these – we keep our options under constant review.
Research
Updated 1 March 2024.
RxISK’s PSSD Research Fund is currently supporting three projects.
The first is run by Prof. Luisa Guerrini at the University of Milan. Prof. Guerrini has a background in research on regulatory proteins and has discovered that SSRIs produce changes in ACE2 receptors and p63. Similar results have been seen with isotretinoin and finasteride, both of which have been reported to cause similar conditions to PSSD.
p63 is the gateway to the neuro-epithelium that forms skin and nerves, and ACE2 is known to be linked to sexual dysfunction. This would fit with recent indications that at least some people with enduring sexual dysfunctions have a peripheral neuropathy.
A further discovery was that the cells in her assay system exposed to these drugs stopped dividing. Further work is needed to understand why this happened and whether SSRIs, finasteride, and isotretinoin all behave the same way or whether there are points at which they diverge.
The funding that Prof. Guerrini has been given to date was for a postdoctoral researcher and materials for testing including specialized antibodies to help understand why the cells stopped dividing.
This project is ongoing and we are aiming to write up the initial findings in the coming months. We hope this will generate wider interest and the involvement of others.
The second project is a study based in the UK involving corneal confocal microscopy (CCM). CCM is a non-invasive technique used to investigate peripheral neuropathies by taking images of nerve cells within the eye. The aim of the study is to investigate whether CCM can detect abnormalities in PSSD patients. In addition to CCM, participants also undergo a range of other tests for peripheral neuropathy including Sudoscan to evaluate sweat gland function. Several participants were tested in 2023, with more recruited in 2024 to increase the sample size. We hope to have some initial results around mid-2024.
In the third project, we are tracking the use of transcranial photobiomodulation therapy in two PSSD patients to see if it produces a benefit. There is published literature describing its use in antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction. However, to our knowledge, this is the first time it has been tried in PSSD patients. The plan is to also assess genital sensation using von Frey filaments before and after treatment. It will probably be towards the end of 2024 before we have any results.
We are grateful to everyone who has donated so far, and we welcome further contributions to support these ongoing projects. We are also continuing to chase leads and look for additional research opportunities.
Money disbursed
- Von Frey Filaments £394.25 on 28 January 2024
- CCM study £1,100 on 19 October 2023
- £15 transaction fee on 12 July 2023
- £9,642.36 to Dr. Luisa Guerrini on 12 July 2023
- Open access fee of £1,289 on 29 June 2023
- Transaction fee of £5 on 27 July 2022
- £13,925.15 to Dr. Luisa Guerrini on 26 July 2022