The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved (18 August, 2015) the drug Addyi (generic flibanserin) which is misleadingly being touted as the “Female Viagra.”
But unlike Viagra, which affects blood flow to the male genitals, Addyi, the “pink Viagra” for women, is all about messing with their minds: it’s an antidepressant drug and there are some very serious, even life-threatening adverse reactions.
While most would agree that it is insulting and demeaning to suggest women suffer from a mental illness because of a lack of desire to participate in a sexual act, the use of dangerous mind-altering drugs to allegedly increase a woman’s sexual desire is simply a continuation of the FDA and APA’s (American Psychiatric Association) history of pathologizing normal female behavior and it is a disservice to women, not a mental disorder. This fraudulent diagnosis, Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), appears in the DSM-4 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), and as Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder in DSM-5.
Because of the severity of the potential side effects, and to get around the complaint that many patients are being given psychotropic drugs without full informed consent, this drug can only be dispensed by certified prescribers using a Patient-Provider Agreement Form about the risk of serious side effects.
Two hundred sales representatives from Sprout Pharmaceuticals are targeting obstetricians and gynecologists, as well as psychiatrists and primary care physicians.
Clinical trials had a very large placebo effect; 38% of placebo patients indicated improvement. One suspects that there are many natural alternatives without the risks of psychotropic drugs.
Flibanserin was originally developed as an antidepressant before being re-purposed for the treatment of so-called HSDD. It messes with the levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain. No one really understands how it works.
Read more about this drug by clicking here.
Read more about full informed consent here.