If you suffer from hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HDSS) then the good news is that the new drug flibanserin has just been FDA approved. However, due to the side-effect profile and interactions with substances - including alcohol, the FDA have ordered a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program that mandates special training for prescribing doctors.
There has been the usual furure over the launch of this product and questions raised around creating pathological markets in order to drive a new block buster drug. Med Page Today quote the CEO of Sprout Pharma (the manufacturer) and say, "Not surprisingly Sheryl Kingsberg, PhD, a reproductive biology and psychiatry professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who consults for Sprout, called the FDA's decision the biggest advancement in sexual health since the pill."
Med Page Today go on to report that, "Sprout describes HSDD on its website as "a persistent or recurrent deficiency or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity that causes marked distress or interpersonal difficulty." The sponsor stresses that the diagnosis is not associated with "a medical, substance-related, psychiatric (e.g., depression), or other sexual condition."
Dubbed "the female Viagra," flibanserin targets receptors in the brain thought to enhance libido. However, in their own study Total Health asked a number of pre-menopausal women if in their experience they were familiar with, or felt that the 'disease' of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HDSS) existed. Sprout may be interested to learn from this authoritative market research that the concensus opinion was overwhelmingly significant in their view that the condition should be re-named to PIAT or 'Partner Is a Plonker'.
