Reply to Anxious about Starting Lexapro for Anxiety

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Anxious about Starting Lexapro for Anxiety"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son was on Zoloft (another SSRI similar to Lexapro) for 9 to 10 months while he was participated in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Without medication therapy wasn't working. Once the therapy started working and his mood really improved he was able start exercising and using the techniques. It then took 6 to 8 weeks to taper. So the whole process took a year.

I did not want him on a SSRI for over a year because the sexual dysfunction side effects of SSRI's are usually not discussed with teens. It's awkward and most teens do not want to discuss this with their medical provider especially if a parent is in the room so it is hard to study.

From one article: Adults taking SSRIs may experience sexual side effects more than half the time, some studies estimate, and it's possible that rates of sexual side effects would be similar in teens, Levine said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-antidepressants-teens-side-effectsidUSKBN0MJ24C20150323/

When I hear of so many teens saying they are non-binary and/or asexual I really wonder if some of them are on SSRI's.

I think it was really worth my son taking a SSRI because he was in a pretty bad place, and if he hadn't been able to substantially improve we would have wanted him to stay on the medication. I just wanted to mention it because the sexual dysfunction side effect really needs known particularly as teens are going through puberty and starting to try out relationships with others.  [/quote]

The sexual issues increase with age in every single study, so they can't assume teens are the same.  There hasn't been any studies to show it directly in teens.  And all note that depression tends to decrease all of these issues already and anxiety can sometimes sharpenly increase them for them worse (more masturbation /sexually active)  So it is very hard to decipher the role they SRRI's play in teens and sexual side effects.  That said, no one should avoid trying them for a potential fear of this and no one should be on them if they can't discuss side effects with their parents or doctor.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics