First Oral Medication for Premature Ejaculation

First Oral Medication for

Premature Ejaculation

SAN ANTONIO—Premature

ejaculation (PE) remains an undertreated and underdiagnosed

condition, even though it is more prevalent than erectile dysfunction, and its consequences can be just as devastating to the couple and to the individual. Patients and physicians alike often shy away from the topic, which is still being perceived as a very personal matter, in part perhaps because no treatment has been approved specifically for this condition. The advent of sildenafil citrate (Viagra) has lifted the taboo on sexual dysfunction as a medical condition and has launched the investigations of more and more pharmacologic treatments for a

variety of sexual dysfunctions in both men and women. The FDA is currently reviewing

the investigational serotonin transport inhibitor dapoxetine hydrochloride (Ortho-McNeil)

for the treatment of PE. If approved, dapoxetine would be the first pharmacologic product

indicated for the treatment of this common condition, which up to now has not been considered

a condition to be treated in primary care and was mainly relegated to urologists or sexual

medicine specialists. In a recent study, dapoxetine was shown to triple or quadruple

the duration of sexual intercourse for men with PE before