Performance Enhancing, Non-Prescription Use of Erectile Dysfunction Medications

Abstract

SUMMARY Erectile dysfunction (ED) has a variety of causes, e.g., traumatic injuries, surgery in the pelvic region, use of certain drugs, prostate cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney diseases. The advent of several oral therapies for treatment of erectile dysfunction have afforded many men a relatively quick and easy alternative to previously high-risk, invasive treatments, e.g., intracavernosal and intraurethral insertions, vascular surgery, vacuum constriction devices, and prostheses. However, ED drugs are being misused by men and women of all ages, with documented use in college-aged individuals and homosexual men, many times without a prescription. Furthermore, we have collected data on sexual compulsivity patients which confirm the abuse potential of ED medications among certain psychiatric patients. Those with depression, cardiovascular disease, and nicotine addiction, are also at increased risk of misuse. Viagra and other ED medications can easily be obtained online, on the street, in sex shops, etc., and are frequently used concomitantly with recreational drugs, e.g., MDMA, GHB, amyl nitrites, methamphetamine, and ketamine. Currently, no national survey or surveillance system tracks misuse of any erectile dysfunction medication.