Little Pink Pill - It's coming, but should it?

Nearly ever since the advent of Viagra, there has been a search for a female counterpart. (For a recap on how Viagra saw the light of day - check out The Viagra Story.) Don't get me wrong, many women find Viagra works well to improve their sex life. The drug companies need a new compound to market to women. Since Viagra is so well-known as a treatment for men, there needs to be a separate drug for women. This is just marketing. So which behemoth drug company has come closest to the finish line - Boehringer Ingelheim with their new Little Pink Pill Flibanserin (and I do hope they come up with a more catchy name). Not surprisingly, this drug is not trying to physically 'up' women's sexual responsiveness. Instead it is geared toward the psychological aspects of sexuality.

Boehringer Ingerheim doesn't even claim to have any expertise or interest in this area of research. Here's a pic from their website:

Nowhere on this list is anything to do with emotional issues. The only area that comes close to brain function alteration for the purpose of emotional enhancement is Parkinson's - and it's not close enough for my blood.

Here comes the question - does the medical community know enough about how the brain works to play around with it? And for sex? Really. How many reports have their been that antidepressants led to suicides? Or how about the rampant use of Ritalin. If your kiddo is not paying attention to you or to school - give them a pill. Ritalin is a central nervous system stimulant similar to amphetamines targeting the dopamine neurotransmitter in a manner similar to cocaine. The side effects are numerous: Short-term effects can include nervousness and insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, palpitations, headaches, changes in heart rate and blood pressure (usually elevation of both, but occasionally depression), skin rashes and itching, abdominal pain, weight loss, and digestive problems, toxic psychosis, psychotic episodes, drug dependence syndrome, and severe depression upon withdrawal. (Taken from a webpage of Partnership for a Drug-Free America.) How are these Side Effects better than a kid who has trouble focusing? Let's face it - kids don't pay close attention. They just don't. And what's more - with time, they get over it. But somehow we've bought into the idea that it's not only OK but necessary to mess with the developing brains of our children. How do we know that we won't be permanently altering the course of their natural development? And here's the rub - is there any way for us to know this with certainty?

And so I question, do we really know enough about the brain and it's changes with not only puberty and early development (as is the question with Ritalin) but with the hormonal cycling of female brains (and yes the hormonal cycling triggers do also come from the brain) and menopause / peri-menopause? It seems as though we haven't figured out how best to handle the hormonal changes of menopause - and now we're going to further complicate matters by mucking with women's brains on top of things.

In a time when a large proportion of the population and even the medical profession is rediscovering the efficacy of natural approaches why are we being bombarded by these 'medical interventions'? Pharmaceuticals are big business. They're so big they can force compliance of governing bodies like the FDA and they can also lure physicians into prescribing drugs when they could be exploring the nature of the problem. If you think I'm off my rocker - do you know someone who is taking 1 or more drugs to counteract the side effects of another drug their taking? Or perhaps you remember the Vioxx scandal - the NSAID that caused heart attacks?

So yes there will be a Little Pink Pill - backed heavily by Boehringer-Ingerheim with the help of their paid researchers and marketing team - don't believe it - check out Sex, Brain, Body. They even produced a special panel with 6 of 8 specialists supported directly by them. And in the field of research it may as well read - owned by Boehringer. But like big oil - it's up to the consumer to make as many alternate choices as possible and put pressure on our elected officials to ensure that our Best Interests are being addressed - not big business's.