To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Antidepressant Venlafaxine Alleviates Hot Flashes in Men URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/128D42.htm Doctor's Guide September 7, 1999
ROCHESTER, MN -- Sept. 7, 1999 -- Venlafaxine, an antidepressant drug, helps reduce the incidence of hot flashes in men undergoing androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer, finds a recent Mayo Clinic report published in the Journal of Urology. The researchers found that 10 out of 16 men (63 percent), had a greater than 50 percent reduction in hot flashes at the end of the fourth week of taking the antidepressant drug compared to a baseline week in which study participants took no drugs for hot flashes. The incidence of severe and very severe hot flashes in each patient was reduced from an average of 2.3 per day during the baseline week to an average of less than one per day at the end of the study. "Approximately three out of four men who undergo androgen-deprivation therapy experience uncomfortable hot flashes," said Charles Loprinzi, M.D., Mayo Clinic medical oncologist and one of the authors of the study. Information from this pilot study suggests that antidepressants such as venlafaxine offer the first effective non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes in men. Ongoing work is looking at various doses of venlafaxine and similar antidepressants to better determine the efficiency and toxicity of this approach. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.