No, that's not a typo. If anyone is squeamish, prudish, or fastidious about sex, reader, read no further. But if one is interested in sex as science, or just has a good old prurient interest in the topic, read on.
We may have a new anti-depressant. Human semen. If correct, it means there's another good reason for having sex. Not only does it make you feel good, it may also make you feel better. And the substance is all-natural, and (by definition) cannot cause sexual dysfunction, as opposed to, say, Prozac. But it does create a considerable problem for Big Pharma. How the heck are they going to market this product? Jesse Bering discusses the hypothesis in a recent blog at _Scientific American_ (at http://tinyurl.com/27jqllu ). The feature researchers are Gallup and Burch, who propose that human semen contains a large number of potent neurochemicals, which would be absorbed through the vagina after unprotected sex. Some of these may well be mood modifiers. Their current best evidence is a finding that college women who have unprotected sex report fewer depressive symptoms than women who have protected sex. I know, I know, and thankfully, so do Jesse Bering and Gallup and Burch. Bering even quotes G & B as follows: "It is important to acknowledge that these data are preliminary and correlational in nature, and as such are only suggestive. More definitive evidence for antidepressant effects of semen would require more direct manipulation of the presence of semen in the reproductive tract and, ideally, the measurement of seminal components in the recipient´s blood." Good luck on finding subjects for that one. Prudish a bit myself, I'm not going to discuss other methods of drug delivery, so to speak, although I'm sure you're thinking of them right now, and Bering does discuss them. But it's an interesting hypothesis, woth watching to see how it develops. Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6419 or send a blank email to leave-6419-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
