Source: Hong Kong Med J  |  Posted 6 years ago

By Ed Susman

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- May 30, 2005 -- Researchers report that treatment of premature ejaculation -- the most common male sexual dysfunction -- with the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft) improves the condition, but treatment with the oral anti-impotence agent vardenafil (Levitra) succeeds even better.

Frank Sommer, MD, professor of urology at the University of Cologne, Germany, presented the findings from a small pilot study here May 23[^]rd[] at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting.

"There is a potential usefulness of vardenafil as a promising line of therapy in premature ejaculation," he said during in his presentation on behalf of the German Men's Health Study Group.

Dr. Sommer and colleagues enrolled 34 men and randomized them to receive either 10 mg of vardenafil about 30 minutes before attempted intercourse or 50 mg of sertraline 4 hours before intercourse. The men had to have self-rated premature ejaculation scores of 4 or higher and intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IVELT) of less than 1.5 minutes.

After 6 weeks, the men were given a 1-week washout period before being crossed over to the alternate treatment.

The men were evaluated for primary and secondary premature ejaculation, grading their ejaculation on a scale of 0 to 8, with 0 meaning they never had premature ejaculation and 8 meaning premature ejaculation occurred almost every time they had intercourse.

The researchers obtained scores on the 15-item Baseline International-Index-of-Erectile-Function (IIEF). They also required subjects and their mates to gather IVELT by stopwatch. Partners' sexual satisfaction was measured using the McCoy sex scale questionnaire.

By the 6-week evaluation, the mean premature ejaculation score improved from 6.14 at baseline to 4.28 with sertraline and to 3.2 with vardenafil -- almost a 50% improvement for vardenafil over baseline, Dr. Sommer noted.

The IVELT scores rose dramatically, from an average of just over 30 seconds at baseline to 2.87 minutes with sertraline and 5.23 minutes with vardenafil.

Overall patient satisfaction increased from 1.4 at baseline to 3.2 with sertraline and 4.2 with vardenafil. Participants used a scale that ranged from 0 to 5 -- with 5 being completely satisfied -- from 1 of the IIEF questions.

Partners' sexual satisfaction scores on the McCoy sex scale questionnaire increased from 3.6 at baseline to 4.7 with sertraline and 5.5 with vardenafil.

While the results were encouraging, Dr. Sommer said, "The place of vardenafil in the therapy of premature ejaculation awaits larger patient samples and placebo-controlled studies to confirm these results."

Gregory Broderick, MD, professor of urology, Mayo College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, who moderated a press briefing at which the study was presented, agreed that additional tests are needed to determine the impact of vardenafil or other erectile dysfunction drugs on premature ejaculation.

[Presentation title: Treatment of Premature Ejaculation: a Comparative Vardenafil and SSRI Crossover Study. Abstract 741]