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Erectile Dysfunction Drug Helps Men with Spinal Cord Injury
GARCHE, France -- Tadalafil (Cialis) may help some men with spinal cord injuries have erections sufficient for satisfactory sex, reported European investigators.
GARCHE, France, Sept. 11 -- Tadalafil (Cialis) may help some men with spinal cord injuries have erections sufficient for satisfactory sex, reported European investigators.
In a double-blind study, men with erectile dysfunction secondary to spinal cord injury who took tadalafil reported a significantly greater number of successful penetration attempts and intercourse attempts than men who took a placebo, reported Franois Giuliano, M.D, Ph.D., of Raymond Poincar Hospital here, and colleagues.
"Tadalafil was administered on demand and significantly improved erectile function, compared with placebo, in men who developed erectile dysfunction following a traumatic spinal cord injury," they wrote online in the Archives of Neurology.
The mean patient age was 38 (range 18 to 36). All patients had erectile dysfunction secondary to spinal cord injury of at least six months duration from injuries at all spinal levels.
The study began with a four-week treatment-free run-in period in which the patients were to make at least four sexual intercourse attempts without medication.
Patients were then randomly assigned in a three-to-one ratio to receive either 10 mg of tadalafil as needed (142 patients) or placebo (44 patients), with assessments every four weeks up to 12 weeks.
After the first treatment interval, tadalafil was either titrated to 20 mg or the dose remained unchanged, and after the second interval it could be titrated up, down, or left unchanged according to the investigator's assessment of patients' responses. Patients were free to initiate intercourse at a time of their choosing after dosing.
The investigators measured efficacy of treatment with the International Index of Erectile Function and Sexual Encounter Profile. Secondary measures were global assessment questions asking whether treatment improved erections, and if so whether it improved ability to engage in sexual activity.
At baseline, the mean score on the International Index of Erectile Functions was 13.4 (in the moderate erectile dysfunction range). After 12 weeks of treatment, the means score was 22.6 for the tadalafil group (mild erectile dysfunction range), compared with 13.6 for the placebo group (P
