Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction: Patient experiences of engagement with healthcare professionals

A petition to the European Medicines Agency provided an opportunity to collect reports of a specific adverse event from patients and healthcare professionals, along with details of clinicians' attitudes when asked to endorse patient reports.

We approached a cohort of patients reporting post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) to an adverse event reporting website, RxISK.org. The responses of patients on their interactions with healthcare professionals were subject to a qualitative analysis.

A total of 62 participants from 23 countries provided details of their experiences. While some had received support and validation of their condition, many described a number of difficulties including a lack of awareness or knowledge about PSSD, not being listened to, receiving unsympathetic or inappropriate responses, and a refusal to engage with the published medical literature.

Healthcare professionals are nervous about or reluctant to engage with novel problems on a treatment. This is not widely appreciated and the reasons for this concern are not understood.