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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chinosa who wrote (11273)	7/12/1998 12:13:00 PM
From: DaiS	Respond to of 23519

Sex, Nursing Homes and Viagra: Drug Focuses New Attention on Ongoing Dilemma [Medical Tribune: Family Physician Edition 39(11): 1998. c 1998 Jobson Healthcare Group] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEATTLE--Perhaps the one setting where sex is more of a thorny issue than the American workplace is in our nation's nursing homes. And a Boston expert predicts that sex among elderly residents will become even more of a contentious issue for an aging population that now has Viagra, the wonder drug that is enabling thousands of older men and their partners to regain an active sex life. For the most part, though, it is not the nursing-home residents who have hang-ups about sex. It is their children, many of them unwilling to accept that their parents--who may have spent years without a companion--may now take full advantage of their new opportunities for socialization and sexual activity, according to Rosemary McDonald, M.S.N., R.N., who coordinates care for the elderly at the Brockton/West Roxbury Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in Brockton, Mass., where staff members often refer to her as "the sex nurse." "Adult children are often very uncomfortable with their parents' sexuality," she said here last month at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society. "It's very hard for them. It's hard to perceive that your parents are still having sex." Consider the case of an elderly woman with osteoporosis who sustained a hip fracture during sex. McDonald said that when the patient's daughter learned how the fracture occurred, she was outraged, demanding to know, "why was she allowed to have intercourse?" Some people go so far as to insist that their parents be transferred to another nursing home to avoid contact with a consenting sexual partner. To this, McDonald responds: "We cannot forget the word 'adult.' Sexuality is a basic human need. It's like food and water." But even nursing-home staff can have difficulty accepting sexuality among consenting, mentally competent patients, particularly if a person has more than one partner, she said. And some staff members become outraged, and even ask that patients "be drugged," for engaging in behaviors like masturbation or reading pornography, she added. While McDonald cited many instances where sexual activity in nursing homes is inappropriate--such as when patients aggressively pursue unwilling partners, when they expose themselves in public or when they are so mentally incapacitated that they may not know what they are doing--she said much sexual activity is perfectly normal and should not be subject to scorn, from staff or family members. Part of the problem, she said, is lack of privacy. She described one nursing home that had only one private room--the chapel. When staff members became outraged with a "dirty old man" frequently caught looking at pornography and masturbating, McDonald suggested the facility add private rooms where patients could spend "uninterrupted time." Sometimes, mentally incapacitated patients exhibit unacceptable sexual behavior, such as walking around unclothed or walking into an opposite-sex bathroom, but these patients need understanding and assistance--not condemnation or sedating drugs, she stressed. Andrew Weinberg, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who coordinates a committee on long-term care for the American Geriatrics Society, agreed that sexual activity among the elderly is normal and needs to be addressed, not overlooked, in the nursing-home environment. "We need to take this seriously," he said. Attesting to the interest in sex among even the oldest of the old, McDonald recalled a recent conversation about Viagra with a 101-year-old male patient. "If I had a sex partner," he said, "I'd be first in line." The availability of the impotence drug makes dealing with issues of sexuality in nursing homes an even greater priority now, she added. --J.S.

To: chinosa who wrote (11273)	7/12/1998 12:16:00 PM
From: KHS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23519

To all--Concerning Q's Will a marketing partnership work? Other examples in the industry? What if partnership does not boost sales? Does VVUS fire them and look for sale of company? Would there be any interest at that time by buyers? Status of current relationship with Astra & J&J? Do we really know? If a buyout, Vivus management lose jobs? Wonder what there personal agenda is? I think partnership is too risky becuase it may not work and then what? I am concerned that our internal competition is management trying to be heroes. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.