Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to treat people who have (a) post-acute withdrawal syndrome and (b) post-SSRI sexual dysfunction after taking anti-depressant medication.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved product information outlines the details of possible adverse reactions associated with each medicine. Whilst post-acute withdrawal syndrome is not currently recognised as being associated with antidepressant use, the product information for the most commonly prescribed antidepressants contain advice about the risk of withdrawal reactions associated with antidepressant use, and advises users not to stop these types of medication abruptly.

The product information for some antidepressants contains advice that they can be associated with sexual dysfunction where symptoms continue despite stopping the antidepressant. An expert working group of the Commission on Human Medicines has been established to review how the risk of sexual dysfunction, where symptoms may continue, is communicated to patients. Separately, a review of the communication of the risk of withdrawal reactions in the product information will be taken forward in the MHRA’s project, to improve the information supplied with known dependency-forming medicines. Patients can visit either their general practice, or a sexual health clinic, for support with erectile dysfunction.