 What's the latest on treating depression with the spice saffron? Years ago I covered this head-to-head comparison of saffron vs. prozac for the treatment of depression, seemed to work just as well, and in the years since, there's been five other studies that found that saffron beat out placebo or rivaled antidepressant medications. It may be the red pigment in the spice called crocin, since it alone beat out placebo as an adjunct treatment, significantly decreasing symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, and general psychological distress, perhaps in its antioxidant role, preventing free radical-induced damage within the brain. The amount of crocin they used was equivalent to about a half teaspoon of saffron a day. If the spice works as well as the drugs, one could argue that the spice wins, since it doesn't cause sexual dysfunction in the majority of men and women like most prescribed antidepressants do, with drugs like prozac, paxil, and zoloft, causing adverse sexual side effects in about 70% of people taking them. Physicians not only significantly underestimate the occurrence of side effects, they tend to underrate how much they impact the lives of their patients. Not only is this not a problem with saffron, the spice may even be able to treat it. In folk medicine, there's a widely held belief that saffron might have aphrodisiac effects, so men with prozac-induced sexual impairment were randomized to saffron or placebo for a month. And by week 4, saffron resulted in significantly greater improvements in erectile function and intercourse satisfaction. More than half of the men in the saffron group regained normal function. They conclude that saffron is an efficacious treatment for prozac-related erectile dysfunction, and female sexual dysfunction as well. Female sexual function increased by week 4, improving some of the prozac-induced sexual problems, but not others, so better perhaps to try saffron in the first place for the depression and avoid developing these problems, since sometimes they can persist even after stopping the drugs, potentially worsening one's long-term depression prognosis. This includes unusual side effects such as genital anesthesia, where you literally lose sensation. What can happen in men and women? More rarely antidepressants can induce a condition called Restless Genital Syndrome. You've heard of Restless Leg Syndrome? Well, this is Restless Between the Leg Syndrome. These PSSDs, these post-SSRI sexual dysfunctions, meaning dysfunction that appear or persist after stopping taking these antidepressants, can be so serious that prescribing physicians should mention the danger of, for example, the risk of genital anesthesia for every patient prior to starting them on these drugs. If you're on one of these drugs, did your doctor warn you about that? All hope is not lost, though. Evidently, penile anesthesia responds to low-power laser irradiation. After 20 laser treatments to his penis, one man who lost his penile sensation thanks to the drug Paxil partially regained his touch and temperature sensation. However, he still couldn't perform to his girlfriend's satisfaction, and she ended up evidently leaving him over it, which probably didn't help his mood any. But before you feel too bad for him, compare a little penile light therapy to clitoridectomy, clitoris removal surgery, or another Paxil-related case where women's symptoms only improved after six courses of electroshock therapy.