Sex, Lies, and the Media: Did Businessweek Distort the Relation Between ED Drugs and STDs?

The headline in a recent story reported in Bloomberg Businessweek tells it all: "Men on Viagra, Cialis Show Triple Rate of Sex Diseases in Study." This was duly summarized in the Blogosphere on PharmaGossip:

"Men on Viagra, Cialis Show Triple Rate of Sex Diseases in Study - BusinessWeek

"Men taking drugs for sexual potency showed almost triple the rate of sexually transmitted diseases compared with those not taking the medications, a Harvard University study found.

"The results, from an analysis of the health insurance claims of men aged 40 and older, may have more to do with the nature of the men using the impotence drugs than with the medicines leading them to have riskier sex, the research report said. The study, looking at men taking Pfizer’s Inc. Viagra and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Cialis, was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine."

Reading just the headlines and summaries such as the one above, you might be lead to believe that ED drugs CAUSE unsafe sex, which leads to more sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). Right? WRONG!

You have to read down to the 11th paragraph of the 16 paragraph story to learn that the study does NOT prove that taking ED drugs leads to more unsafe sex. Quite the contrary: users of these drugs actually showed a DECREASE in STDs AFTER taking the drugs compared to BEFORE taking the drugs!

That paragraph states the study results: "The risk of getting HIV in the year before taking the pills was 3.32 times higher in drug-takers and 3.19 times greater in the year after, compared with those not taking the pills." [Find the article here.]

In other words, the groups of men who were prescribed ED drugs were in a high risk group BEFORE being prescribed ED drugs. In the abstract, the study authors were careful to point out "Significant changes in STD rates from the year before to the year after the first ED drug prescription was filled were not documented." [Find the abstract here.]

Pharma often complains that the media are "anti-pharma" and often emphasize the negative aspects of clinical trials, advertising, etc. (see, for example, "What's the Cause of the Drug Industry's Bad Reputation?"). The BusinessWeek article is just one case where I have to agree, although overall I sense that the industry gets a lot more positive traction from the media than negative (see, for example, "Academics Exaggerate, Journalists Regurgitate. What About Bloggers?").

What do YOU think?

Does the Media focus too much on bad news about the pharma industry?
	Yes, definitely
	Absolutely not
	Maybe, sometimes
	More often than not
	It's pretty much balanced