That antidepressants kill libido is no surprise. The same mechanism that lets SSRIs make us feel stable thwarts attempts to rile us up. "You can think of it as a seesaw," says Louann Brizendine, M.D., director of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. "One end is serotonin" - the compound that elevates mood and that SSRIs keep circulation at high levels in your brain. "The other is dopamine. If serotonin is high, dopamine is low." Herein lies the problem: Dopamine is the thrill-me compound. (Wellbutrin increases dopamine, which is why it helps with libido in combination with SSRIs). "We like dopamine. It's exciting. If you take heroin or cocaine, you quickly increase your dopamine, and that's what's needed for an orgasm."
Tough Love, by Elizabeth Weil, Vogue Magazine, July 2013