Live Panel Examines a Condition Affecting an Estimated Hundreds of Thousands — and What the Emerging Evidence Suggests About Restoration of Sensation, Emotion, and Connection

(PRUnderground) May 13th, 2026

The Institute of OM Foundation will host “The Unspoken Epidemic: Healing the Body After SSRIs,” a live Zoom panel in which an OB-GYN moderates a conversation with three women who spent years on antidepressants and experienced Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) — a condition in which loss of sensation, emotional range, and sexual responsiveness persists after antidepressant use ends.

WHAT PSSD IS — AND HOW COMMON IT MAY BE

In May 2026, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a federal action plan to address psychiatric overprescribing — including new Medicare and Medicaid billing codes for physicians who help patients taper off antidepressants and a federal requirement that informed consent include disclosure of discontinuation symptoms and side effects. The announcement came as federal data showed 1 in 6 American adults is now taking an antidepressant. Peer-reviewed meta-analyses in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry estimate that 40 to 65 percent of SSRI users experience sexual dysfunction during treatment; a 2017 study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found 46 percent of long-term users report emotional blunting. For a significant subset, these effects do not resolve when the prescription ends.

Approximately 37 million Americans are currently prescribed SSRIs — and the burden falls disproportionately on women. According to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, 17.7% of adult women in the United States take an antidepressant, more than double the rate for men. At current usage rates, the number of women experiencing lasting post-treatment effects is estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

MODERATOR

Teresa Diaz, MD — OB-GYN and functional medicine physician, Rutgers-trained, specializing in menopause, hormone restoration, and women’s vitality. Co-author of The Art, Science and Spirituality of the Female Orgasm. Dr. Diaz has practiced Orgasmic Meditation for fourteen years and brings both clinical and personal perspective to the subject.

PRACTITIONER STORIES OF RECOVER

Rachael, panelist:

“I wasn’t quite happy, I wasn’t sad — everything felt like there was a numbness and a lack of a spark. I had thought if I go off of these, everything will just snap back. I didn’t realize how long it would last. It took something else to change that back.”

“The sexual touch felt like I could really feel it — the film that I had felt before disappeared, and I could really feel a spark. It was like sunshine came back in, where it kind of felt a little bit foggy before.”

Courtenay, panelist:

“I felt like I had two choices: take the antidepressants and lose access to the one thing that ever had me feel alive — or not take them, and never feel alive but also not be completely depressed. Those were terrible options.”

“I learned through OM how to handle sensation. Stroke by stroke, I stayed present — I learned to bring my attention to this point where there was a lot of sensation and feel it through my body. And then I could do that in life.”

WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS

Three published studies on Orgasmic Meditation (OM) bear directly on the panel’s subject:

— A 2021 PLOS ONE study by Prause, Cohen, and Siegle found that OM reduces negative emotions and increases positive affect — the opposite of emotional blunting associated with long-term SSRI use.

— A 2022 study by Siegle and Prause in the International Journal of Psychophysiology found that OM participants, including those with trauma histories, show increased physiological arousal during practice, measured by galvanic skin response and autonomic markers.

— A 2021 fMRI study by Andrew Newberg, MD, published in Frontiers in Psychology found significant changes in frontal, temporal, and parietal activity and in limbic structures governing emotional processing — a pattern that more closely resembles deep meditation than sexual stimulation.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE OF OM FOUNDATION

The Institute of OM Foundation is a nonprofit research organization studying the effects of Orgasmic Meditation on the nervous system, emotional range, and well-being. The Foundation has supported nine peer-reviewed studies published at Thomas Jefferson University, UCLA, the University of Pittsburgh, and MIT.

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Original Press Release.