Word: pill
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That may change if a pill called sildenafil fulfills its early promise. Doctors at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association last week reported preliminary results from three short-term European trials of a total of 400 men whose impotence did not have a clearly defined physical cause. Almost 80% of the subjects said their sexual performance improved within an hour of taking the pill. It worked so well, says Dr. Ian Osterloh, a physician with Pfizer, which manufactures the drug, that "after the trials were over, most of the patients came back asking for more...
...questions still have to be answered before sildenafil can be made widely available. Doctors believe the drug works by blocking an enzyme that allows blood to flow out of the penis. It is this trapped fluid in erectile tissue that makes the organ firm. Yet unlike other treatments, the pill doesn't work without sexual arousal, suggesting sildenafil augments rather than bypasses the normal erection process...
...possible that some of the benefit is psychological. In the largest study, of 351 men, almost 40% of those who took the placebo reported enhanced sexual function. Their improvement was not due to any biological action and thus must have been triggered by the men's belief that the pill they were taking would do some good. But for sildenafil to win an appreciable market, it must work on men whose impotence is due solely to organic problems. Investigators are preparing to conduct a trial of 2,500 men, including those whose dysfunction has a clear physical cause, such...
Doctors are concerned that an anti-impotence pill could be subject to widespread abuse. Reports indicate that some Hollywood bedroom athletes have already tapped an underground market for an injectable erection drug. The danger is that otherwise healthy men will take sildenafil to bolster their sexual performance and then become psychologically addicted, unable to achieve an erection without...
Still, even dexfenfluramine supporters do not believe that it--or any other pill--will ever be a dieter's dream come true. Studies show that people who take dexfenfluramine shed an average of only 10% of their weight. Doctors also caution that the drug is intended for those who are 20% or more above their recommended weight range. "It's not a magic pill," stresses Dr. Richard Wurtman, a neurologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped develop dexfenfluramine. "It must be used as part of a package that includes good nutritional advice and a good exercise program...