Penile anesthesia in Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) responds to low-power laser irradiation: a case study and hypothesis about the role of transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels.
Waldinger MD1, van Coevorden RS2, Schweitzer DH3, Georgiadis J4.
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Abstract
Treatment of paroxetine-induced penile anesthesia in Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) by Low-power Laser Irradiation (LPLI) is unknown in medical literature. The aim of the current article is to report partial efficacy of LPLI for paroxetine-induced persistent penile anesthesia. We report on a male patient who presented with a history of reversible loss of smell, taste and skin sensitivity occurring within a week after start of 20mg/day paroxetine-hemihydrate for a depressive period. Concurrently, patient suffered from penile anesthesia, scrotum hypesthesia, anejaculation and erectile difficulties with normal sexual desire. During 2.5 years of paroxetine treatment and throughout 2 years after paroxetine discontinuation, genital and sexual complaints persisted. Penile anesthesia was treated by LPLI with single and multi diode pulsed laser probes. After 20 LPLI-treatment sessions of 15min each, patient reported partial return of penile touch and temperature sensation. Clinical improvement of glans penis sensitivity was reported to 20% and 40%, compared to pre-paroxetine treatment penile sensitivity during erect and flaccid states, respectively. However, anejaculation and erectile difficulties remained unchanged. Briefly, in the current patient with early onset of PSSD, LPLI treatment reduced paroxetine-induced penile anesthesia. It is hypothesized that SSRI treatment induces disturbances of transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels of mechano-, thermo- and chemosensitive nerve endings and receptors resulting in the penile anesthesia in PSSD. It is further hypothesized that there are two types of PSSD, one of which occurs soon after the start of SSRI treatment.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
klinikum.uni-muenchen.de/Uro … _2010a.pdf
Localization and Function of Cannabinoid Receptors in the Corpus Cavernosum: Basis for Modulation of Nitric Oxide Synthase Nerve Activity
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regarding your first post, i think jthese transient receptor potential ion channels are very relevant for pfs pssd and cfs.maybe they are the root
we shoukd look more into them
Has anyone tried this laser?
I have. Hasn’t worked for me.
Hi jrums, I was just reading this paper and getting very excited, but then I see it didn’t work for you at all? The way I look at things is that our problems are a combination of many things, so seeing an article reporting that one of them (genital anesthesia) might be relatively simple to address was very encouraging.
Could you say something more about how you went about getting this procedure performed? Even though it apparently didn’t work for you, I’m still interested in learning as much as I can about it. I was actually thinking of contacting the doctor who authored the paper. But maybe you got the procedure performed through Goldstein?
Hey yeah I went to a local physical therapy clinic first. They had a very expensive one and I did 10 treatments there. But it was getting expensive and I bought a $200 on Amazon and had been using it for a few months. But I know some of them cost like $5,000. But I think you should contact the author, Dr. Waldinger, and see what model laser he used cause I think that might matter.
Would you be willing to retry it if the model was different?
Yes as long as the model isn’t like $5,000.
I wonder a little of the physical therapist might not have known what he/she was doing. It seems to me it might require particular expertise since it’s a relatively new practice that is still being developed and probably considerably different from most other physical therapy applications.
Could you say about what the cost was with the expensive machine?
It was like $50 a session. Insurance might cover it though for some but I have crappy insurance now cause I can’t work. According to the paper it takes 20 sessions so it was adding up. They just left me alone in a room to do it. The laser I bought online is not as good as the one they had there but it’s still a laser. I would like to know the exact model Waldinger used. Probably expensive.
To be honest that doesn’t sound like it was a good evaluation of the potential of this procedure. We need to look into this further.
A measured 40% increased sensitivity by apparently reputable paper is huge if you ask me.
I agree. But I hope it’s not like everything else in this condition in that something that works for one person has no effect on someone else. It would be great if someone else could try it.
If you read the paper the laser used was a 915 nm 100 mW Omega XP. He’s a very reputable doctor and researcher in neurology and sexology. I think this looks extremely promising and wish I’d seen it earlier. A nerve is a nerve if it works on one person it ought to work on another.
Damn those lasers are expensive. I bought a cheaper one for a few hundred. That one is $8,775 at one place. The one used at physical therapy was similar. It says 15 20 minute sessions. I did 10 in physical therapy and a bunch more with home laser. Wish I could try that exact powerful laser. Would love to ask Waldinger some questions.