Public Citizen sues FDA over citizen petition on SSRI sexual side effects labeling

The FDA should re­quire drug­mak­ers to warn pa­tients of po­ten­tial long-term sex­u­al side ef­fects from a cer­tain class of an­ti­de­pres­sants, the con­sumer ad­vo­ca­cy group Pub­lic Cit­i­zen ar­gued in a new law­suit against the agency.

In the five-page com­plaint filed Mon­day in the US Dis­trict Court for the Dis­trict of Co­lum­bia, Pub­lic Cit­i­zen ar­gued that the FDA should have al­ready de­cid­ed on a cit­i­zen pe­ti­tion filed by a group of doc­tors. The pe­ti­tion asked the agency to re­quire drug­mak­ers to in­clude in­for­ma­tion about sex­u­al side ef­fects of se­lec­tive sero­tonin re­up­take in­hibitors (SS­RIs) and sero­tonin-nor­ep­i­neph­rine re­up­take in­hibitors (SNRIs) that can oc­cur even af­ter a per­son stops tak­ing the med­ica­tions.

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