Recruiting Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction

Adam_Kadmon

Greenlighter
Joined
May 15, 2010
Messages
31
[Please note I am not the researcher. This is a very important study since the medical community is in denial about the long-term harm psychiatric drugs can cause. If you, or anyone you know, has PSSD please apply to this study.

Hello everyone,


The article "Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD): Clinical Characterization and Preliminary Assessment of Contributory Factors and Dose-Response Relationship" has recently been published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, a respectable medical journal with an impact factor of 3.243, and one the most popular journals dealing with psychiatric medications (psychopharmacology). This is the largest work about PSSD to date and an important step forward in raising awareness to PSSD.


On behalf of the research team I'd like to thank each and every one of you who took part in the survey. You made a brave effort, and it couldn't have happened without you.


Now it's time to move forward. We want every doctor and every psychiatrist to know about PSSD. We want to prevent PSSD, and to be able to raise legitimate funding for research about PSSD mechanism and treatment.


It all depends on being able to convince the medical community. The major obstacles are (1) not enough awareness and (2) arguments for alternative explanations to PSSD, like other medical and psychiatric conditions that can cause sexual dysfunction.


In order to present a convincing argument against alternative non-pharmacological explanations, we need a large study that includes comprehensive medical assessment of each participant, carried out and documented by a medical doctor, including:

● Full medical history

● Physical examination

● Comprehensive blood tests, including a CBC, comprehensive metabolic panel, relevant hormone levels

● Standardized evaluation of sexual dysfunction

● Psychiatric assessment


Without this, the chances of getting PSSD recognized are unfortunately low. As long as PSSD is dismissed in favor of confounding factors, it's hard to move forward.


We are inviting you to take part in a multi-center study about PSSD, which is due to start in about 2 months from now after it will be authorized by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). We will find and contact psychiatrists with interest in SSRI side effects and/or sexual dysfunction from different countries and cities around the world, to which persons with PSSD could approach and undergo comprehensive medical assessment (as outlined above) using a standardized research protocol, which will eventually be analyzed using data from all the centers.


We need to know who is willing to take part in this important endeavor. If you want to make a difference and help establish PSSD is a legitimate disorder, help prevent PSSD and promote further research on PSSD mechanism and treatment, this is it.


If you are willing to participate in the study, contact the research team at [email protected] stating your first name, age, name of the medication that was involved (e.g. Citalopram) and the country and city in which you currently live (this is very important so we can locate a doctor working in your city or nearby). We must emphasize again that the study can only take place after it is approved by an IRB; this is only a list to see who is interested in participating. Recruitment for the PSSD multi-center study will be open until the 20th of September 2015. [this date has been extended, the study is still recruiting!] Only if we have enough participants will we be able to carry out this important study. It's up to you.


Just so we are very clear about this. Your data is strictly confidential. No details that may expose your identity will ever be published. No data will be handed to any third party without your written consent. As a medical doctor I'm obliged to this by both law and ethics. We have worked hard to publish the survey research, and we will continue to work together to promote research and treatment for PSSD.



Sincerely,

Joseph Ben-Sheetrit, MD, Geha Mental Health Center, Petah Tikva, Israel

Lead researcher and first author of the PSSD survey publication.


Antonei B. Csoka, PhD, Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Howard University, Washington DC, USA

Dr. Csoka published the first PSSD case reports in the medical literature and coined the term "Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction". He published the first article about a possible epigenetic mechanism for PSSD.

Dr. Csoka is part of the research team and one of the authors of the recent survey publication.


PSSD Research Team
 
Follow up:

Hello everyone,
Thank you for enrolling in the PSSD study.
We have 85 enrollments so far thanks to you, which is very good – but we need more: we are extending the enrollment for the study until further notice.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is due next month, and the study can only begin after its approval. Please note however that IRBs sometimes require amendments for study proposal before it is approved, which can take some more time. We will be in touch and keep you updated from time to time until the study begins.
Also, we are making some changes in the study design, to make it more feasible and practical to carry out. After the study is approved, every one of you who has agreed to take part in the study will need to send us a short letter from his or her doctor, which could be a general practitioner, a psychiatrist, or any other doctor who knows you, which states your general medical and psychiatric diagnoses and current medications (which is quite standard and should not be very difficult to obtain). We will also need you to send some blood tests results, but that’s all we’ll need regarding the medical data – all the rest of the research will be done using video interviews and questionnaires.
The in-depth internet video interviews (e.g. via Skype) will give you the opportunity to tell us in detail everything that you feel is important about your condition and will help us to gather valuable information about PSSD, the various symptoms that co-occur with PSSD, treatments you have already tried etc. We think it’s the best way to overcome the geographical distances between us, which obviously span the entire world, without requiring you to travel or spend money and without losing valuable data that is obtained only in person-to-person clinical interviews.

Sincerely,

Joseph Ben-Sheetrit, MD

and the rest of the PSSD Research Team
 
Top