Informazioni notizie e comodità

per vivere meglio. Online dal 1998

Meteo

Premium: i contenuti riservati agli abbonati.
Sexuality

a cura di Marco Dal Negro

Italiano -English
N.B.: Different languages can express different contents.

Exercise may help increase sexual arousal in women taking antidepressants (2014-01-17)

Antidepressant drugs, while widely prescribed, carry a number of side effects, including sexual side effects such as impaired sexual arousal. Acute exercise has been shown to increase sexual arousal in healthy women; as such, there is reason to believe an exercise intervention may help increase sexual arousal in women taking antidepressants as well.


 

Psychological researchers discovered moderate intensity exercise at the right time significantly improves sexual functioning in women who are taking the antidepressants.
Findings suggest that sexual dysfunction can be effectively treated with an inexpensive, non-invasive prescription of moderately intense workouts.

The researchers recruited 52 women who reported sexual side effects from antidepressants.

During the first three weeks of the study, the participants engaged in sexual activity with no exercise.

In the second experiment, the participants completed either three weeks of exercise immediately before sexual activity, or three weeks of exercise not timed to it. They all also engaged in sexual activity and 30 minutes of strength training and cardio exercise three times a week.

The two groups then reversed roles in the last experiment. Women who exercised regularly were asked to add three extra sessions to their workout routines.

The results showed that 30 minutes of exercise just before intercourse can reduce the effect of the libido-dulling drugs.

This study is the result of another previous study in which researchers hypothesized that acute exercise would increase women’s sexual arousal. To test this hypothesis, researchers conducted a laboratory based trial of aerobic exercise to improve physical sexual arousal in women experiencing sexual side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Participants (N= 26, Mage = 27.3) watched a neutral and then an erotic film while their physical sexual arousal (vaginal pulse amplitude, VPA) was recorded.
In a separate, counterbalanced session, participants exercised for 20 minutes at 80% of their maximum heart rate.
Five minutes after exercising, participants watched another neutral and erotic film while their arousal was recorded.

Researchers calculated percent change in sexual arousal between neutral and erotic films for each session. On average, women’s sexual arousal to the erotic film during the exercise session was double that of the baseline session (i.e., 23% increase between neutral and erotic films during the baseline session vs. 50 % increase after exercise).
A paired t-test indicated that women’s sexual arousal during the exercise condition was significantly greater than at baseline (t(25) = 3.37, p < 0.05.

Thus, in laboratory based trials, acute exercise immediately prior to exposure to sexual stimuli appeared to increase sexual arousal in women taking antidepressants. While these results were promising, it was unknown if the intervention will be as effective in a non-laboratory environment.

See also
Exercise can lead to female pleasure

For more information
Psych Central - Antidepressant-Induced Sexual Dysfunction Eased by Exercise

Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin

MDN


.

Pubblicità



Pubblicità