1. ¹Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
2. ²Pfizer, New York, NY, USA
3. ³Pfizer, New York, NY, USA

Correspondence: Dr AD Seftel, Department of Urology, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospital of Cleveland, 11100 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106-5046, USA. E-mail: adseftel@aol.com

Received 28 August 2006; Revised 30 April 2007; Accepted 25 May 2007; Published online 5 July 2007.

Abstract

Improvement in bother associated with erectile dysfunction (ED) is an important aspect of successful treatment of ED. Changes in erectile function and the bother associated with ED were assessed in this analysis of pooled data from five 12-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, flexible-dose studies of sildenafil. Men who received sildenafil (n=578, vs placebo, n=550) had significantly greater (least squares means.e.) improvement in erectile function (EF) domain scores of the international index of erectile function (IIEF) (10.00.3 vs 1.00.3, P<0.0001) and in erection distress scale (EDS) total transformed score (18.80.8 vs 4.80.9, P<0.0001). Scores on individual questions of the EDS were 24–65% higher after treatment with sildenafil (vs 8–12%, for placebo). The change in EF domain score correlated positively with the change in total transformed EDS score (0.43, P<0.0001). Successful treatment of ED with sildenafil may reduce the bother associated with ED.