Print“This study is a great example of how we work to understand the safety and effectiveness of what we recommend for our patients.”
Use of a class of common, over-the-counter pain killers have been linked to increased risk of erectile dysfunction, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in The Journal of Urology.
The findings are surprising because NSAIDS have a protective effect against heart disease and erectile dysfunction has been linked to heart disease. In fact, when they began the study the researchers expected to find very different results to what the study showed.
“This study is a great example of how we work to understand the safety and effectiveness of what we recommend for our patients. We went into this study thinking we would find the opposite effect: that NSAIDs would have a protective effect because they protect against heart disease, which is also linked to ED,” says study senior author Steven Jacobsen, an epidemiologist and director of research for Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “The next step is to dive a bit deeper to understand the underlying physiology of what might be happening with these drugs.”
Men who used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs three times a day for more than three months were found to be 2.4 times more likely to have erectile dysfunction than men who did not take those drugs regularly, the study found.
The study used electronic health records, an automated pharmacy database, and self-reported questionnaire data to examine NSAID use and erectile dysfunction in an ethnically diverse population of 80,966 men aged 45 to 69 years throughout California.
After controlling for age, race, ethnicity, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol and body mass index, the researchers found that erectile dysfunction was 1.4 times more likely—a modest risk—among regular NSAID users compared to men who did not take the drugs regularly. This association was consistent across all age groups.
The researchers caution that men should not stop taking NSAIDs based on this study. “There are many proven benefits of non steroidals in preventing heart disease and for other conditions. People shouldn't stop taking them based on this observational study. However, if a man is taking this class of drugs and has ED, it's worth a discussion with his doctor,” Jacobsen said.
March 04, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-not_tonight_i_had_a_headache.html
.gif)
