Lybrido for Low Libido?

A feature article in last week's New York Times Magazine served as an extended ad for a new book by Daniel Bergner, What Do Women Want? Adventures in the Science of Female Desire. It's filled with post-fashionable pop neuroscience and simplistic neurotransmitter stereotypes that rival those of Naomi Wolf (including her infamous “dopamine is the ultimate feminist chemical in the female brain” quote). The focus of Bergner’s article is on pharmaceutical treatments for the controversial diagnosis of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), particularly the subtly named Lybrido (along with its younger sister, Lybridos). The heavy-handed branding of Lybrido and Lybridos (both 'working titles') was fascinating to me. While trying to identify the marketing firm behind it, I discovered the trademark was abandoned 6 years ago by Emotional Brain, the Dutch drug company developing them. Finding the active ingredients in Lybrido and Lybridos wasn’t readily apparent from the Emotional Brain site. Nor was it immediately evident from the NYT article, which even used obfuscatory language: “Female Viagra” is the way drugs like Lybrido and Lybridos tend to be discussed. But this is a misconception.Actually, this is not a misconception. Both drugs contain a major male sex hormone plus a second ingredient: Lybrido is testosterone + sildenafil (Viagra), while Lybridos is testosterone + buspirone (a serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist). The two formulations are in clin...

Source: The Neurocritic - June 3, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs