The Tricky Connection Between MAT and Low Sex Drive

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It’s Complicated! –

February 26, 2019 – Distinguishing the Impact of MAT and Other Drugs

One problem with examining the prevalence of MAT-related sexual dysfunction is that it’s difficult to separate the effects of the methadone or buprenorphine from the effects of what the person was taking before, said Ling.

Ling knows—and quotes—the world’s top opioid researchers, past and present (and many would say that he is the dean of them all). David Smith, the founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, believed that “the addict will always blame whatever he or she is feeling or experience on the last thing that he or she took,” Ling told Filter. “So it’s not surprising that everybody talks about the effects of long-term treatment with methadone and buprenorphine.”

“But if you take a step back, and ask what these people were doing before they were in treatment, they were using opioids on the street, exposing themselves to the opioid effect, including the effect on testosterone levels.”