Viagra's Clientele Getting Younger

Experts suspect increasing recreational use of the drug

Young men may not need it, but they sure want it.

Viagra's use by younger men has grown more than threefold since it was launched in 1998, according to recent research, and experts think that many younger users are trying to enhance their sexual performance.

While Viagra, which helps men get erections by increasing blood flow to the penis, is not dangerous for these men, researcher Tom Delate wonders about the wisdom of spending health-care dollars on the recreational use of a prescription drug.

"With the cost of health care going up, are we willing to pay for lifestyle drugs for some?" he asked HealthDay .

Delate and his team began the study to evaluate the use of Viagra (sildenafil) and other "lifestyle drugs." Once those facts were obtained, he said, those who manage pharmacy benefits can decide better about coverage. Delate is former director of research for Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits management company.

"We wanted to look at who is receiving them, if there is an increase in use among age groups, who is prescribing them, and do they have a medical need for these medications," Delate said.

Viagra has been joined on the market by two other heavily advertised prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction, Cialis (tadalafil) and Levitra (vardenafil).

Delate's team examined nearly 163,000 Viagra prescriptions dispensed to nearly 49,000 patients over five years. They found that more men overall were using it, but its use had increased 312 percent in men 18 to 45 years old, compared with a 216 percent increase among men 46 to 55 years old. Men 56 and older continued to receive the majority of prescriptions for Viagra.

When the researchers looked at claims for drugs that might trigger erectile problems, they found the proportion of users who had two or more claims for that medicine had decreased, leading them to assume that much of the use was for enhancement, Delate explained.

"It's a safe drug, particularly for young, healthy men," Dr. Ira Sharlip, a San Francisco urologist and a spokesman for the American Urological Association, told HealthDay . In a healthy population, he said, side effects are usually minor and temporary. They can include headache, facial flushing, stuffy nose and blurred vision.

However, in combination with nitroglycerin medication for heart problems, Sharlip said, Viagra can cause a drop in blood pressure and, if the user has undiagnosed coronary artery disease, there is a heart attack risk.

But Sharlip said many healthy users who have normal erections and think the drug will give them very lengthy erections would be disappointed. "It might reduce the refractory time," he said, referring to the time lag between erections.

Many doctors, including Dr. Stephen Ross, a family medicine physician at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center in California , have said they won't prescribe Viagra or similar drugs for healthy men who just want to enhance their performance.