A new drug called flibanserin is being hailed as a potential "Viagra-like drug for women," according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the University of Ottawa in Canada.
Flibanserin, which was originally developed as an antidepressant, did a very poor job in treating depression, says principle investigator for North America John M. Thorp, Jr., but it is effective in treating low libido, a common problem among depressed women.
Thorp, Elaine E. Jolly, overall principle investigator, and their colleagues pooled data from four clinical trials of flibanserin conducted in the U.S., Canada and Europe, including a total of 1,946 pre-menopausal women aged 18 and older who had been randomly selected to receive either the drug or placebo for 24 weeks. The women were also measured four weeks prior to treatment to obtain a baseline and followed up for four weeks afterward. One of the four trials was eventually excluded from the final report, however, due to the fact that it dealt with doses too low to be effective.
The researchers found that treatment with a 100 mg dose once a day was associated with significant improvements compared to placebo in all of the measures used, including the number of satisfying sexual events reported by the women, sexual desire and function and distress associated with sexual dysfunction.
"These results point to a novel approach to pharmacologic treatment of the sexual problem that plagues reproductive age women the most, and may over time prove to be an effective treatment without the side effects of androgen replacement therapy, which is the only treatment currently available," said Thorp.
Flibanserin is currently an investigational drug only and is not available outside of clinical trials.
Thorp and Jolly presented their results on November 16 at the Congress of the European Society for Sexual Medicine in Lyon, France.
My partner and I discussed this, she said only married couples need it, if she did she’d give up.
If my partner needed it I’d give up, she would go elseware for sex.
My partner is 58 and suffers from anxiety, though still multiorgasmic, and ejaculates.
How very disappointing. I subscribe to this listserv but only rarely read something that piques my interest. This article definitely caught my attention … and I read further, only to discover the drug isn’t available at all to the general public. So if the purpose of depression.com, and the listserv in particular, is to provide ways for people to deal with their depression, why pull the bait-and-switch, leaving those of us who are truly interested in such a drug STILL waiting for such a drug. Again, very disappointing.
VIAGRA 4 WOMEN-id love to trial the new drug,im suffering depression and at the moment my sex life is none existant im happily married and love my husband so much but its affecting my marrage because im just not intrested at all.ive tried exersize relaxation u name it ive tried it so how do i go about becoming a guinea pig 4 this new trial or can i get it from my gp.
i would like to be a guinea pig for a new trial.i would love to have my sex life back again.i used to love sex.
I too have been on anti-depression pills. Also pain and parkinsons medication.
I cannot remember the last time me and my husband had sex. I trully don’t have a desire. When we do have sex it hurts like hell. Sometime I end up bleeding.
It would at least help if a had at least some sex drive. My husband has had viagra for over a year. We have not got close even once. This makes me all the more depressed. Even though I am coming out of a major depression, I hope something can help with libido.
I’ve been using anti-depression pills for the past 18 months, and my sex drive is making my husband crazy. I use the medication and my husband’s sex drive has taken a nose dive. I cant explain it. Thats all I can think about.All I want to do is have sex! Am I the only one to experience this?
I feel exactly like the woman who wrote that the articlde peaked her interest and read it only to find that the drug is not available. I was ready to get a pen to write down the name of the drug so I could ask my physician about prescribing it. When I got to the bottom of the article and read that it was not available I felt like “What is the point of printing this?” Why not let us know after the drug becomes available so we don’t get our hopes up.
Please let us know when this drug is available! I have actually tried to go off my antidepressants so I could enjoy intercourse with my husband but I end up very depressed and in despair. I feel like I can’t win either way. I am curious what antidepressant the previous person is taking that actually helps her libido?!
I am totally like Emma comment #3.
The only thing that is different is that my husband is very understanding and it has not effected our marriage. I feel less than a women, we have been married for 36yrs. When our sex lives were very active. Now because of meds for depression I have no desire and that really bothers me.
Could I be one of the trial people??
most women don’t know anything about the female sexual dysfunction, most of they this problem as frigidity this cause that women feel uncomfortable and inclusive feel pain during sexual relations, and for this reason there this new drug.