People who take the drug phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE5i) – a common medication for erectile dysfunction – are at higher risk of early death when they use it along with nitrates, a medication for chest pain, a new study has revealed.
Erectile dysfunction is a common condition in middle-aged and older men that makes it difficult to get and keep an erection. It can occur due to several causes, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, use of certain prescription medications, alcoholism and tobacco use.
Although PDE5i and nitrates should not be used together as they cause a drop in blood pressure, the number of people who are prescribed both is increasing. However, there are not many studies based on real-world data that have looked into the implications of using them together.
“Physicians are seeing an increase in requests for erectile dysfunction drugs from men with cardiovascular diseases. While there is a positive association of ED medication for men with CVD (cardiovascular disease), patients taking nitrates may experience an increased risk of negative health outcomes,” said senior author Daniel Peter Andersson, from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
The findings of the study were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Researchers evaluated 61,487 men who had a myocardial infarction or percutaneous coronary intervention (angioplasty to open up blocked blood vessels) and received two nitrate prescriptions within six months. The team also followed up with those patients who had at least two filled prescriptions of any PDE5i medications.
Of the total participants, 55,777 men were treated with nitrates, and 5,710 were treated with both nitrates and PDE5i. Researchers noticed that the group that used both medications was younger at 61.2 years compared to 70.3 years in the nitrate-only users.
“The results of the study indicate that the combined use of PDE5i treatment with nitrates is associated…
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