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Acute Exercise Improves Physical Sexual Arousal in Women Taking Antidepressants

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Antidepressants can impair sexual arousal. Exercise increases genital arousal in healthy women, likely due to increasing sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity.

Purpose

Test if exercise increases genital arousal in women taking antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which suppress SNS activity, and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), which suppress the SNS less.

Method

Women reporting antidepressant-related sexual arousal problems (N = 47) participated in three counterbalanced sessions where they watched an erotic film while we recorded genital and SNS arousal. In two sessions, women exercised for 20 min, either 5 or 15 min prior to the films.

Results

During the no-exercise condition, women taking SSRIs showed significantly less genital response than women taking SNRIs. Exercise prior to sexual stimuli increased genital arousal in both groups. Women reporting greater sexual dysfunction had larger increases in genital arousal post-exercise. For women taking SSRIs, genital arousal was linked to SNS activity.

Conclusions

Exercise may improve antidepressant-related genital arousal problems.

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Notes

  1. Stimulation of other NE receptors, particularly the α1 receptors, generally causes vasoconstriction; however, there is evidence that in sacral nerves such as those innervating the genital vasculature, the effect of β2-related blood vessel dilation is far stronger than that of α1-related constriction [52].

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Grant Number 1F31MH085416 from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) to Tierney Lorenz and, in part, by 1RO1 HD051676 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to Cindy M. Meston. The contents of the manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A8000, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Tierney A. Lorenz M.A. & Cindy M. Meston Ph.D.

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  1. Tierney A. Lorenz M.A.
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  2. Cindy M. Meston Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Tierney A. Lorenz M.A..

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Lorenz, T.A., Meston, C.M. Acute Exercise Improves Physical Sexual Arousal in Women Taking Antidepressants. ann. behav. med. 43, 352–361 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-011-9338-1

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