Mind & Matter

SSRIs, Sexual Dysfunction, Suicide & Mass Shootings, How FDA Works | David Healy | 232

Jun 5, 2025
Dr. David Healy, a seasoned psychiatrist and pharmacologist, dives into the contentious world of SSRIs and their significant side effects, including post-SSRI sexual dysfunction and vulnerabilities to suicidality. He critiques how pharmaceutical companies manipulate clinical trials and ghostwrite research, overshadowing patient experiences. Healy emphasizes the urgent need for individualized patient care and transparency in medical practices, raising concerns about the ethical implications of SSRIs and the power dynamics in healthcare.
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INSIGHT

Value Patient Reports Over RCTs

  • Austin Bradford Hill emphasized valuing patients' subjective reports over randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
  • RCTs offer averages and miss individual effects critical for patient care.
INSIGHT

SSRIs Cause Immediate Numbing

  • SSRIs cause sensory numbing, especially genital numbness, within 30 minutes of the first dose.
  • This sensory dampening is immediate and almost universal but often goes unacknowledged.
INSIGHT

Serotonin's Role in Sensory Gating

  • Serotonin gates sensory information; SSRIs dampen this sensory gate, causing emotional numbness.
  • Most serotonin is outside the brain, impacting the body and sensory system, not just brain chemistry.
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