AR: Your patients can easily find them on the internet - products advertised as "dietary supplements" to enhance sexual performance or treat erectile dysfunction. Many of these products are said to be "all natural" alternatives to prescription drugs, which might mislead people into thinking they're harmless.
MB: In fact, an FDA investigation of a number of these sexual enhancement products found that a third of them actually contained the same or similar ingredients as those in Viagra (sildenafil citrate), Cialis (tadalafil), and Levitra (vardenafil HCl) - and sometimes in very large amounts. FDA has issued many alerts about these products over the past several years, but their number appears to be growing.
AR: As with the approved drugs for erectile dysfunction, taking these products can be especially dangerous for people who are on prescription drugs that contain nitrates, such as nitroglycerin, because they can interact to cause dangerous hypotension. Patients with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates, and since erectile dysfunction is common in men with these conditions, they may seek out these supposedly natural products. To make matters worse, it's unlikely that these so-called 'supplements' are made under the same quality controls as prescription drugs. This means that the identity or amount of active ingredients could vary greatly or the products could contain other potentially risky ingredients not listed on the label.
MB: So caution your patients not to be misled by claims of "all natural" ingredients in products marketed for sexual enhancement. Warn patients who shouldn't take approved prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction that taking these sexual enhancement products could pose similar or worse risks. And tell patients who are using prescription drugs to treat erectile dysfunction not to take these so-called "supplements" because doing so could expose them to dangerously high doses of the active ingredient in their prescriptions.
标题
Sexual Enhancement Product Caution (FDA)
视频介绍
FDA Patient Safety News - June, 2010 - Show #99
Advertising for "dietary supplements" to enhance sexual performance or treat erectile dysfunction might mislead people into thinking they're harmless.
Speaker #1: Anita Rayner (AR), Associate Director, Policy & Communications, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Speaker #2: Mark Barnett (MB), Assistant Director, Education & Communication, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
