Searching for answers and validation: Australian women's experiences of coping with the adverse sexual effects of antidepressants

Sexual difficulties relating to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication have an impact on quality of life and are a common cause for non-adherence to medication. While most research has focussed on the prevalence and treatment of sexual difficulties, little is known about how patients cope with the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs. This qualitative study, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), investigated the experiences of 10 Australian women currently coping with the adverse sexual effects of this antidepressant by conducting semi-structured interviews. This paper presents one major theme from the study and reports the findings related to women's self-reported experiences of interacting with GPs in their search for answers and validation of their concerns. Findings from the study add to the current literature by providing an insight into how interactions with GPs impact on women's abilities to cope with adverse sexual effects. Empathic discussions and shared decision-making between GPs and women can provide the opportunity to improve the management of the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs and may lead to improved outcomes for women

Speciation in the Deep Sea: Multi-Locus Analysis of Divergence and Gene Flow between Two Hybridizing Species of Hydrothermal Vent Mussels

International audienceBackground: Reconstructing the history of divergence and gene flow between closely-related organisms has long been a difficult task of evolutionary genetics. Recently, new approaches based on the coalescence theory have been developed to test the existence of gene flow during the process of divergence. The deep sea is a motivating place to apply these new approaches. Differentiation by adaptation can be driven by the heterogeneity of the hydrothermal environment while populations should not have been strongly perturbed by climatic oscillations, the main cause of geographic isolation at the surface. Methodology/Principal Finding: Samples of DNA sequences were obtained for seven nuclear loci and a mitochondrial locus in order to conduct a multi-locus analysis of divergence and gene flow between two closely related and hybridizing species of hydrothermal vent mussels, Bathymodiolus azoricus and B. puteoserpentis. The analysis revealed that (i) the two species have started to diverge approximately 0.760 million years ago, (ii) the B. azoricus population size was 2 to 5 time greater than the B. puteoserpentis and the ancestral population and (iii) gene flow between the two species occurred over the complete species range and was mainly asymmetric, at least for the chromosomal regions studied. Conclusions/Significance: A long history of gene flow has been detected between the two Bathymodiolus species. However, it proved very difficult to conclusively distinguish secondary introgression from ongoing parapatric differentiation. As powerful as coalescence approaches could be, we are left by the fact that natural populations often deviates from standard assumptions of the underlying model. A more direct observation of the history of recombination at one of the seven loci studied suggests an initial period of allopatric differentiation during which recombination was blocked between lineages. Even in the deep sea, geographic isolation may well be a crucial promoter of speciation

Antidepressants, sexual difficulties and coping strategies : raising up women’s voices

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a qualitative research methodology which is concerned with understanding personallived experience. According to Reid, Flowers and Larkin (2005), this methodology is particularly well suited to researching sexual health and sexuality as it moves beyond disease and deficit focused approaches and complements the traditional biomedical discourse. For sexual health practitioners, the applied focus of this research methodology also lends itself to the development of sexual health resources and potential interventions.This paper will provide a brief overview of IPA as a research methodology and discuss the advantages of using such an approach within the field of sexual health and sexuality. As an exemplar of how this methodology can be used, the preliminary findings from the author’s doctoral research will be discussed. The aim of the research was to explore women’s experiences of coping with the sexual side effects of antidepressant medication. A purposively selected sample of 10 Australian women under 45 years old were interviewed twice to provide a detailed account of individual experiences and the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed through an iterative and inductive process. A number of overlapping themes have emerged from thisresearch and numerous coping strategies have been identified. Preliminary findings highlight the importance of understanding the interactions between the biological, the psychological and the social context of women with sexual side effects resulting from antidepressant medication. An insight into how these three areas overlap, is critical in accounting for how women cope with sexual side effects

‘Accepting what is’ : an approach for managing the long-term sexual side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in women

Sexual difficulties may not be a pressing issue for women on antidepressants during the early phase of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment; however, this can emerge as a substantial problem once women are stabilised on medication. Little is known about how women cope with the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs. This qualitative study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experiences of Australian women currently coping with the sexual side effects of this antidepressant. Interviews were conducted with 10 heterosexual women, aged 45 years and younger. Four major coping strategies were identified “searching”, “suffering in silence”, “trying to resolve” and “accepting what is”. This paper explores one particular response “accepting what is”, which includes a number of strategies commonly employed by women on long-term medication. Findings from the study have particular relevance for sex and relationship therapists and may assist women in managing sexual side effects that are perceived to be beyond their control. This paper adds to the current literature by increasing understanding of how “accepting what is” can be a step forward, particularly for women who have chosen to remain on long term medication. In theoretical terms, a deeper understanding of how women cope could inform debate about the appropriate management of long-term sexual side effects in the absence of effective pharmacological interventions

Searching for answers and validation : Australian women's experiences of coping with the adverse sexual effects of antidepressants

Sexual difficulties relating to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication have an impact on quality of life and are a common cause for non-adherence to medication. While most research has focussed on the prevalence and treatment of sexual difficulties, little is known about how patients cope with the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs. This qualitative study, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), investigated the experiences of 10 Australian women currently coping with the adverse sexual effects of this antidepressant by conducting semi-structured interviews. This paper presents one major theme from the study and reports the findings related to women’s self-reported experiences of interacting with GPs in their search for answers and validation of their concerns. Findings from the study add to the current literatureby providing an insight into how interactions with GPs impact on women’s abilities to cope with adverse sexual effects. Empathic discussions and shared decision-making between GPs and women can provide the opportunity to improve the management of the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs and may lead to improved outcomes for women

Searching for answers and validation Australian women's experiences of coping with the adverse sexual effects of antidepressants /

Sexual difficulties relating to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication have an impact on quality of life and are a common cause for non-adherence to medication. While most research has focussed on the prevalence and treatment of sexual difficulties, little is known about how patients cope with the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs. This qualitative study, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), investigated the experiences of 10 Australian women currently coping with the adverse sexual effects of this antidepressant by conducting semi-structured interviews. This paper presents one major theme from the study and reports the findings related to women’s self-reported experiences of interacting with GPs in their search for answers and validation of their concerns. Findings from the study add to the current literatureby providing an insight into how interactions with GPs impact on women’s abilities to cope with adverse sexual effects. Empathic discussions and shared decision-making between GPs and women can provide the opportunity to improve the management of the adverse sexual effects of SSRIs and may lead to improved outcomes for women

Antidepressants, sexual difficulties and coping strategies : raising up women’s voices

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a qualitative research methodology which is concerned with understanding personallived experience. According to Reid, Flowers and Larkin (2005), this methodology is particularly well suited to researching sexual health and sexuality as it moves beyond disease and deficit focused approaches and complements the traditional biomedical discourse. For sexual health practitioners, the applied focus of this research methodology also lends itself to the development of sexual health resources and potential interventions.This paper will provide a brief overview of IPA as a research methodology and discuss the advantages of using such an approach within the field of sexual health and sexuality. As an exemplar of how this methodology can be used, the preliminary findings from the author’s doctoral research will be discussed. The aim of the research was to explore women’s experiences of coping with the sexual side effects of antidepressant medication. A purposively selected sample of 10 Australian women under 45 years old were interviewed twice to provide a detailed account of individual experiences and the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed through an iterative and inductive process. A number of overlapping themes have emerged from thisresearch and numerous coping strategies have been identified. Preliminary findings highlight the importance of understanding the interactions between the biological, the psychological and the social context of women with sexual side effects resulting from antidepressant medication. An insight into how these three areas overlap, is critical in accounting for how women cope with sexual side effects

Biodiversity effects on ecosystem function: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic communities

Recent experiments, mainly in terrestrial environments, have provided evidence of the functional importance of biodiversity to ecosystem processes and properties. Compared to terrestrial systems, aquatic ecosystems are characterised by greater propagule and material exchange, often steeper physical and chemical gradients, more rapid biological processes and, in marine systems, higher metazoan phylogenetic diversity. These characteristics limit the potential to transfer conclusions derived from terrestrial experiments to aquatic ecosystems whilst at the same time provide opportunities for testing the general validity of hypotheses about effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. Here, we focus on a number of unique features of aquatic experimental systems, propose an expansion to the scope of diversity facets to be considered when assessing the functional consequences of changes in biodiversity and outline a hierarchical classification scheme of ecosystem functions and their corresponding response variables. We then briefly highlight some recent controversial and newly emerging issues relating to biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. Based on lessons learnt from previous experimental and theoretical work, we finally present four novel experimental designs to address largely unresolved questions about biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships. These include (1) investigating the effects of non-random species loss through the manipulation of the order and magnitude of such loss using dilution experiments; (2) combining factorial manipulation of diversity in interconnected habitat patches to test the additivity of ecosystem functioning between habitats; (3) disentangling the impact of local processes from the effect of ecosystem openness via factorial manipulation of the rate of recruitment and biodiversity within patches and within an available propagule pool; and (4) addressing how non-random species extinction following sequential exposure to different stressors may affect ecosystem functioning. Implementing these kinds of experimental designs in a variety of systems will, we believe, shift the focus of investigations from a species richness-centred approach to a broader consideration of the multifarious aspects of biodiversity that may well be critical to understanding effects of biodiversity changes on overall ecosystem functioning and to identifying some of the potential underlying mechanisms involved