LISTEN: Do antidepressants destroy love, sex and relationships?

In the region of 240,000 Irish people require daily medication for depression and anxiety.  The most common drugs prescribed are the SSRIs, which include Prozac, Lustral and Seroxat. 

Shockingly, as many as 75 per cent of those taking SSRIs report dampened or lost sex drive, as well as serious impacts on feelings of love or attachment.

Guest: Dr Helen Fisher, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.

There has been a lot of attention in recent years on the emerging field of personalised medicine where medicines may, in future, be developed with the individual in mind, rather than large groups of often very different people.

There is another related field called personalised nutrition. This is where scientists are working to determine the differences between healthy food consumption between people, and to develop nutritional advice accordingly.

A large Europe-wide project, called Food4me, led by UCD, has begun and it is seeking evidence that can underpin the possible future development of personal dietary plans and advice.

Guest: Dr Eileen Gibney, UCD Institute of Food and Health