What to do about Sex

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June 20, 2018 | 12 Comments

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  1. What a fantastic post – so uplifting despite the fact that there are no answers there yet. I feel that this is exactly what we need – to know what has been happening, out of our sights, in the name of ‘progress’.
    It is so easy to feel that our attempts are in vain. That we’ve tried to do all in our powers to raise awareness and donations and still see very little progress. I certainly now feel revitalised to push things even further – knowing that there are so many other worthwhile attempts in the research area going on too.

  2. There is a goal:

    The Intolerance of Deception

    It doesn’t take much to inspire, a word or two, is sometimes all it needs and someone like Anne-Marie is very impressive. So much so, that the blog is still live with comments with alcohol and drugs…one of my doctors notes suggested that I had more than one glass of wine…aka Seroxat ..

    So, let the Talent flow for the intolerance of deception and celebrate the Heather’s and Mary’s, the Anne-Marie’s, the Laurie’s, et al, for their unrelenting dedication ..

  3. Those who can and write well in English could contact researchers by taking their names from neurologic and epigenetic studies found on pubmed. You can try to get them interested in the problem of PSSD, warning that it is supposed, among others, a hypothesis of epigenetic changes at the base, you can ask them what kind of study could approach the understanding of post-SSRI sexual dysfunction. Examples of studies that revolve around SSRIs, serotonin, epigenetics, gene expression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29104538, http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/19/6/1788/htm
    The same can be done by contacting researchers who have already undertaken to study small fibers in the genitals.
    I have sent a lot of emails in the last few years, but unfortunately only a few times I got an answer, maybe also because I do not express myself well in English (I’m an italian woman) and I can not be convincing who is already very busy doing something else…
    I would like if there was a protected group of users busy contacting researchers and doing their own research, to keep up to date together step by step, in addition to pssdforum, does it exist?

  4. On the wake of sodium channels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_channel#Alpha_subunits

    – Potent Modulation of the Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Nav1.7 by OD1, a Toxin from the Scorpion Odonthobuthus doriae
    “The present study shows that the scorpion toxin OD1 is a potent modulator of Nav1.7. Low nanomolar concentrations of this toxin impair the steady-state fast inactivation process, enhance the recovery from fast inactivation, increase the peak Na+ current, and give rise to a substantial persistent Na+ current.”
    http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/molpharm/70/1/405.full.pdf

    – Mapping protein interactions of sodium channel NaV1.7 using epitope‐tagged gene‐targeted mice
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5793798/

    – Analgesic Effects of GpTx-1, PF-04856264 and CNV1014802 in a Mouse Model of NaV1.7-Mediated Pain
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4810223/

    – Voltage-gated sodium channel mutations and painful neuropathy: Nav1.9 joins the family
    https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/137/6/1574/2848095

    – Third Sodium Channel Implicated in Painful Small-Fiber Neuropathy
    Mutations in Nav1.9 render pain neurons hyperexcitable
    https://www.painresearchforum.org/news/40751-third-sodium-channel-implicated-painful-small-fiber-neuropathy

    – Reduced Nav1.6 Sodium Channel Activity in Mice Increases In Vivo Sensitivity to Volatile Anesthetics
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4529172/

    I have not found anything special by searching on Google keywords: sodium channel genital, or sodium channel sexual.

    It is mainly about neuropathic pain. Maybe the opposite of pain is anesthesia (like genital anesthesia), but I’m not sure it’s the key to PSSD: I no longer have arousal and sexual pleasure, yet I do not feel pain and I do not even feel anesthesia to touch, but “sexual anesthesia”… I feel that in my case the problem does not start from genital anesthesia, but from the fact that there is no excitatory response and genital congestion.

    There is much to investigate with ion channels.

    One thing that could be interesting is that the genes that code each channel can have mutations / variations in some individuals; for example, SCN11A is the gene that encodes nav 1.9: “They found eight heterozygous SCN11A variants in 12 patients. Two of these variants, I381T (located in domain I, transmembrane segment 6-D1/S6, present in two patients) and L1158P (DIII/S4, present in two patients)..”

    Who develops PSSD could perhaps have in common the variant of a gene that controls a type of ion channel (sodium, calcium, potassium); who develops PGAD could have a different gene mutation in common, etc.
    The comparison of genome analysis of who has pssd can highlight this mutation?

    sorry for my english and any mistakes.

    • Sorry, I know this is off tangent, but something L has written about sodium and potassium has rung reminder bells for me and I just wanted to add this:-

      In 1950 my father was diagnosed as having manic depression ( following several cyclic manic events since 1940 when he had a 7 hour operation in Manchester, the second ever done in the world, for pericardiectomy, which involved, I understand, lifting the heart out of the body to remove a calcified layer round it which was squeezing it to death). Without this experimental operation, his death was assured anyway. He survived, against all odds, 72 years and did amazing work in the field of design engineering.

      Back in 1950 they hadn’t latched onto the ‘serotonin famine in the brain’ stuff, but my mother was told that his manic depression resulted from ‘an imbalance of sodium and potassium in the brain’. Could this be connected with what L is writing here?
      As a young child, my father had had a passion for eating salt by the handful. He found be found hiding under the table with the salt cellar, guzzling salt. Could this account for the calcium build up round his heart and the later apparent ‘brain imbalance’. Could a sodium/potassium imbalance be happening to many people now taking SSRIs etc so that many more manic depression diagnoses are being made nowadays, when in the 1940s and 1950s it was relatively rare?

      • Heather

        This was a 1960s idea based on what was then known about lithium. Its not entirely unrelated to what antidepressants also do but without knowing what the basis for PSSD is and the genital anesthesia that all SSRIs cause within minutes of the first dose, it’s difficult to know what the links between this and the 1960s ideas – which the 1960s dudes dropped soon after – are

        D

  5. Tarang Sharma and colleagues -Thanks so very much for giving hope that some of the younger cohort are not swallowing the lies put out by the colleges and regulators – with the help of the media and even some ‘user’ organisations. These should be reading your thesis and spreading the message. Will copy it to as many as I can . We don’t want just some young people and adults to be saved we need all to be safe from harm and it can’t just be up to the personal bias of individual prescribers . The harms can include also that the symptoms lead to incarceration, increased drugging damaging comments being recorded on files as well as the particular adverse effects of the drugs you document. I am wondering why the cut off for for describing children and adolescents is 24 yrs? That range would usually include adults?
    After reading such a document I would hope though that no even adult would take the drugs at the very least without the prescriber giving proof of having read the lack of/evidence and therefore being able to warn of the risk – and it is still not clear who will be at risk and how great the risk would be individually.In fact as they are so dangerous I would prefer them to be banned altogether as there are ,as explained on the blog elsewhere, other less dangerous drugs, if drugs are the desired choice to the person and other acceptable options have been tried.. I would respectfully disagree with Tarang and colleagues that ‘prescribing for children Could be negligent’ but maybe that’s a requirement of what can be publishe She/they give the evidence that it Should be negligent. DH has pointed out on the blog elsewhere that a legal case is not really feasible, but medics are still worried if cases are referred to the GMC (even if that org is not trusted or respected either, see their blustering re the Gosport scandal, just one of many ‘failures’) ) maybe that would be a route worth trying again?.

      • Thanks Mary R. I was wondering if there were legal reasons – It is a very crude assumption though isn’t it…

        • The legal issue has nothing to do with a maturing brain. The clinical trials have shown no benefit to these drugs in people 25 or under against which the risks could be offset. The risks are exactly the same in people over 25 but the clinical trials one way or the other appear to have shown some benefit and because of this regulators have decided that warnings would put people off getting this benefit and therefore they won’t warn.

          D

  6. D I noticed we are nearly at the $50,000 mark for the prize – it’s shot up since i last looked. Are we still going for the $100,000?

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