Failed anti-depressant drug could be 'women's Viagra'

http://www.breitbart.com ^ | 11/17/09 | breitbart

[waiyu]

A drug that failed to fight the blues could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra, the lead North American investigator analysing tests of the drug said Tuesday.

Women who took the drug flibanserin when it was being tested as an anti-depressant said it didn't help them beat the glums, but did give them "an increase in libido that they liked," John Thorp, one of the investigators analyzing data from three clinical trials of the drug, told AFP.

[buccaneer81]

Does this strike anyone else as .... lets put out a drug, see what it does and then market it accordingly? Seems a tad scary to me that you shoot at one target, miss and then move the bullseye.

Happens all the time. Too much R&D money spent to waste if we simply give up on one application.

If you want to take it to extremes, take a look at aspirin sales today compared to 20 years ago. Once the cardiac benefits were known, aspirin took on a new life.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Except that Viagra does not increase libido. If it did, well....I won’t go there.

[buccaneer81]

Why is this topic on FR?

Why not? This drug has the potential to be a billion dollar blockbuster.

[sinatorhellary]

"could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra"

It gives them a headache?

[Artemis Webb]

"Why is this topic on FR?"

For the same reason baseball, football, cooking, ghost, UFO's and health issues are. FReepers have other interest beyond politics. If you don't like it or aren't interested don't read the thread.

[jongaltsr]

I wonder how it works on post-menopausal women.
From personal experience, if a woman is less then 2-5 years in menopause a good romance will reactivate her libido and menstruation. I had that happen to two women that I dated. One of which I married.

[RatRipper]

Sounds like this drug could do wonders for this old guy’s depression . . . :)

[jongaltsr]

Odd. Most antidepressants have the opposite effect. They list loss of sexual interest as a side effect.
I know that WAS true with Paxil and Prozac but the newer ones actually seem to be either neutral or even libido enhancing. Celexa (which I take) works wonders. I'm calm and horny as hell and can keep it up for as long as it takes. (I know that may be to much information for some of you but for those with antidepressant usage = This posting is meant for you.!)

[GOPsterinMA]

Are you John Holmes?

[Mercat]

Great. Just what we need - depressed horny women.

[6ppc]

Odd. Most antidepressants have the opposite effect. They list loss of sexual interest as a side effect.

Not all of them. Paxil had an "interesting" effect on my wife, but caused her to gain weight so she switched to something else.

[Night Hides Not]

Why is this topic on FR?

WHY THE F--K NOT????

Just kidding around...

[tuffydoodle]

“If you don’t like it or aren’t interested don’t read the thread.”

Are you kidding? It’s more fun for the Posting Police to go on a thread that doesn’t interest them and bitch about it. It’s what they live for.

[Pessimist]

Am I the only one bothered by using drugs for other puposes just because they noticed they seemed to work?

What does that say about their understanding of the mechanism by which the drug works?

[PAMadMax]

Something Italian-sounding?

Muffangiusi

[allmendream]

Well often times you do know the molecular target of the drug, but are unsure of the exact effects once the molecular target gets hit.

Biology is much more complex than “if A then B which derives C”. More like “A hits B that causes effects C,D,E,F,G and H. C and D are what we wanted, but it didn't do ENOUGH of it. E was unexpected, but everyone liked it, did we discover a drug for E? F G and H are side effects that nobody likes, can we reduce them?”

The mechanism for all this is most likely known, in that drug A hits bio-molecule B, and activated B does a lot of things, SOME of which we want, some of which we do not want, and other things we sometimes didn't expect.

Biology doesn’t have the easy answers.

[Marty62]

Ditto that.

[sportutegrl]

Puh-leeze. They can't keep their legs together as it is.

And Men are such bastions of chastity, Mr. 'Invisible Hand'. (Why don't you keep your hands where we can see them.)

[tsomer]

Great. Just what we need - depressed horny women.

Better than just plain-ol' depressed women.

[Jewbacca]

“Just what we need - depressed horny women.”

Go to a wine store on Friday later afternoon. I went into one to pick up a bottle for Friday night and barely came out alive, the cougars were so on the prowl.