A study funded by Pzifer, maker of Viagra, indicates that the drug can be used by women to counter the sexual side effects of antidepressants; which for some, causes a lack of libido or the inability to achieve organism.
The number of women who participated in the trial was extremely small and the results of this research contradicts all previous studies.
The study which compared the results for women using Viagra with those who were given a placebo may have been compromised by the fact that the women in the antidepressant group may have known they were taking the drug used for sexual dysfunction.
Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, says he already prescribes Viagra to some of his female patients, “[Y]ou think about men and women, there are a lot of similarities.”
Dr. Glenn D. Braunstein, an endocrinologist and chairman of the department of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles talked about the research and its impact on sales,
“This is a provocative study, but I would love to see it confirmed in a larger group of women,” he said.
“If I had to predict, use of Viagra will go up,” he said. “A woman might not even ask her gynecologist for it — she might just ask her significant other to give her some.”
It will be interesting to follow this story and see if larger clinical trials confirm the results of this widely published study.
