Best-selling antidepressant drugs may be making some men infertile, according to research reported. The warning follows a study of two men at Cornell Medical Centre in New York whose sperm counts dropped dramatically to almost zero while taking the drugs, but recovered to healthy levels whenever their medication was suspended.
The men were tested over a two-year period while being treated with the antidepressants Citalopram (Cipramil) or Sertraline (Lustral), which belong to the same class of drugs as Prozac and Seroxat, Britain’s biggest-selling antidepressants. A further 12 men at the clinic have since been discovered to experience a similar but less dramatic fall in sperm counts while on the medication.
The previously unknown effect could be having a significant effect on couples trying to start families, Prof Schegel said.
Demand for antidepressants has soared in recent years, with doctors writing 19m prescriptions for Seroxat alone in 2004.