In Development: An Antidepressant That Won't Affect Your Sex Drive

(MoneyWatch)  Clinical Data Inc. is developing an antidepressant, vilazodone, that will not kill your sex drive. The company believes that's a key selling point because antidepressants frequently subject their users to bizarre sexual side effects such as loss of libido, "genital anesthesia" and "pleasureless orgasm." CDI reported a phase III trial result showing the drug was effective for depression and was the same as a placebo for sexual side effects.

It's difficult to know whether the arrival of vilazodone should be greeted with open arms or rolled eyes. On the one hand, an antidepressant with fewer sexual side effects is a good thing, but on the other it's just another step in the pharmaceutical business's Alice in Wonderland culture of creating side effects with one pill and then creating another pill to cure them.

That culture reached its nadir, perhaps, with a pointless study in JAMA that alleged that women on antidepressants who experienced sexual dysfunction got their orgasms back by taking Viagra. More seriously, given that about 10 percent of all Americans are on antidepressants, and 70 percent of them experience sexual side effects, that means there's a potential market of about 23 million people who would like a pill that doesn't leave them feeling like a marshmallow.

One person who will doubtless be fascinated to see the effects of viladozone in her patients will be Audrey Bahrick, a psychologist at the University of Iowa University Counseling Service, who has specialized in tracking sex problems triggered by antidepressants. BNET eagerly awaits her assessment of CDI's new wonder drug.

• BNET Focus on Antidepressants
• Part 1: Sales and Strategy
• Part 2: Controversies
• Part 3: The Future of the Industry