Doctor says Addyi won’t be effective for most women, but she will prescribe it.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A new pill has been approved by the FDA that some media outlets are calling the “Viagra for women.”
But, is that actually the case? Dr. Karen Adams, clinical OB/GYN professor at OHSU, says that classification might not be accurate.
“Viagra works to improve blood flow to the penis and it works almost 100 percent of the time in men, whereas flibanserin works in the brain, it works on brain chemicals, and it has to be taken daily,” she said. “So a woman will take it every night and it will take about four weeks to begin to see effects and peak effects aren’t seen for about eight weeks. It really acts more like an antidepressant than a blood flow drug.”
The drug manufacturer estimates the medication will work in about one in ten women, Adams said. One in three women complain of some type of sexual dysfunction.
(SOURCE: Portland Business Journal)
So the pill won’t be effective for most women, but Adams said in an Oregonian story that she will still prescribe it after going through a certification program.
[Oregonian:] Does it mark an advance?
[Adams:] It does. Just as you said they’re trying to replicate the success with Viagra. It’s more difficult in women because desire is based on a lot of things. It’s not just a physiologic process. To approach a woman with this kind of complaint, you have to come at it from many different angles. There has been a demand for this for decades. The FDA has turned it down but this time the pharmaceutical company partnered with a PR firm called Even the Score and they packed the hearing room with women who testified to the degree of suffering they were experiencing from this condition, and I think the FDA became very aware of the demand for this from patients.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
