Post-SSRI side effects

Sexual problems when taking certain antidepressants aren’t news. But what’s less talked about are similar side effects for people who stop taking them — although “health authorities in Europe and Canada recently acknowledged that the medications can lead to lasting sexual issues.”

The details are a bit … personal, but let’s just say patients are very disturbed. So set your Google Alerts to “post-SSRI sexual dysfunction,” but keep in mind that not everyone believes it’s real^* — or at least that it’s related to the medication.

“I think it’s depression recurring. Until proven otherwise, that’s what it is,” said Dr. Anita Clayton, the chief of psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

She has a bit of clout, having been one of the first to publish about the side effects of taking the drugs. Other researchers are skeptical as well, so a bunch will be meeting next year to discuss the actual data. As one doctor put it, “Everything begins with anecdotal reports, and science needs to follow.”

^* Patients certainly do.

GPhA awards: Nominations are open!

Who’s the best pharmacist you ever saw? How about technician? Or a student deserving recognition?

It’s time to tell us about it — to nominate someone for one, two, or more 2024 GPhA awards. They’ll be presented at the 2024 Georgia Pharmacy Convention on Amelia Island, but first we need to know who deserves them.

Head over to GPhA.org/awards to see the list of awards, the criteria, and how to nominate someone. The deadline for nominations is January 19, 2024, so don’t wait too long!

Editing out cholesterol

For people who have high cholesterol because of their genes, good news: There might be a way to edit those genes.

Boston-based Verve Therapeutics has tested a CRISPR-based treatment that rewrites a single letter in the DNA of certain liver cells in people with familial hypercholesterolemia — a disease that causes them to have high levels of LDL cholesterol.

Even better, the therapy is delivered by drug, rather than removing cells, treating them, and replanting them. That said, while Verve has tested the treatment on 10 patients with good results, it’s still considered proof-of-concept … but a pretty major breakthrough.

What breast cancer needs

Here’s an interesting but not-yet-useful finding about breast cancer: It seems to “heavily rely on vitamin B5 to grow and survive.”

Before you jump to the obvious conclusion about restricting B5 in the diet, keep in mind that it’s used for a lot of important bodily functions — including the immune system that’s fighting the cancer.

That said, the researchers are now looking at ways to either alter the levels of B5 or to tease out its mechanism and use that info to fight the tumors.

Semaglutide’s new trick

It makes sense that losing weight with semaglutide drugs would also be good for your heart. But, say those shifty Danes at Novo Nordisk, those heart effects aren’t just due to weight loss. The good signs “began to appear almost immediately after starting treatment, researchers said,” meaning before patients had lost weight.

Those good signs?

Patients on Wegovy experienced decreases in C-reactive proteins, an indication of inflammation, similar to those reported with cholesterol lowering statins.

As a Novo spokesman said, the benefit comes from “…a combination of many factors, but I would call out glycemic control, weight loss, and inflammation.”

It’s caveat time! First, it might only apply to white males, because they made up the majority of the test subjects. Second, Novo has no idea (yet) why semaglutide might be good for the heart. Third, it only looked at how the drug might keep heart disease from getting worse — not at how it could reverse it.

Rexulti’s maker needs math lessons

Rexulti is good, but is it 62% good? That’s what drug maker Otsuka has been saying in its television commercials, but there’s no proof of that — and the FDA isn’t happy at all. In fact, “The FDA contrasts the 62% claim with the outputs of its calculations: 4.8%, 7.4%, and 11.9%.”

And no, the agency said in a strongly worded letter to the company, just adding “individual results may vary” doesn’t allow you to play that fast and loose with the numbers.

Frailty from the cat box

You know about Toxoplasma gondii, right? The parasite in cat poop that can cause mental illness and even encourage risk-taking behavior? Here’s another scary effect it can have: It can “contribute to exhaustion, loss of muscle mass, and other signs of ‘frailty’ in older adults.”

That’s from a US/Spanish study that found — and the nuance is important — that it wasn’t the parasite itself that caused the frailty, but rather the bodies’ response to it. Specifically, too strong a response was the problem.

[A]mong those infected, those with higher “serointensity” or a higher concentration of antibodies to the parasite, were significantly more likely to be frail.

The Long Read: GLP-1 Explainer edition

“What’s the Difference Between Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound?” Healthline asks. It then proceeds to give the answer, detailing who should take what and the possible side effects of each,