LONDON – Widespread antidepressant drugs may impair men’s fertility by destructing the DNA in their sperm, according to research, reported in New Scientist magazine.

A study conducted on thirty-five healthy men given paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat) by GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) found that, the percentage of sperm cells with fragmented DNA rose from 13.8 % to 30.3 % after just four weeks treatment.

The researcher, Peter Schlegel and Cigdem Tanrikut of the Cornell Medical Center in New York concluded, “The fertility potential of a substantial proportion of men on paroxetine may be adversely affected by these changes in sperm DNA integrity.”

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