Viagra used more, especially by younger men

Experts are divided on whether this pattern is positive, because more younger men are seeking help, or negative, because they may not actually need the drug.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Sept. 13, 2004.

The use of Viagra increased 84% from 1998 to 2002, with much of the jump accounted for by increases in use among men ages 18 to 55, according to an analysis of an insurance claims database published last month in the International Journal of Impotence Research. Prescriptions for men ages 18 to 45 increased 312%. Those for men 46 to 55 increased 216%.

Researchers expressed concern because this trend may be a burden on the health care system and questioned whether it was a good allocation of resources.

"It's something that the public and insurers should take note of, and, as a society, are we willing to pay for this?" said Thomas Delate, PhD, lead author and director of research for the North American pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts.

Physicians said the growing use of the drug by younger men was both good and bad. Many doctors credit the marketing of sildenafil and other treatments for erectile dysfunction with convincing more men, traditionally less linked to health care than women, to see a doctor, leading them to receive other health services, too.

"A guy who won't go to an emergency room for chest pain will go to their doctor for erectile dysfunction," said Jean Bonhomme, MD, MPH, a board member of the Men's Health Network and a senior faculty associate in behavioral science and health education at Emory University in Atlanta. "And erectile dysfunction might be more common among young men than we're aware of."