The drug was originally developed as an antidepressant. Animal experiments had suggested it might have a more rapid effect than serotonin reuptake inhibitors, but it failed to substantially reduce depression symptoms in a clinical trial.However, the potential to increase female sexual desire became apparent during the study. Reportedly, trial participants were reluctant to return unused pills when the study was over.
In this study, the overall lifetime risk among 40-year-olds was 12.3% for men and 4.2% for women.
Life is not fair.
During a mean follow-up of 30 years, 56.5% of the participants died. About a third of the deaths (32.1%) were attributed to cardiac causes. Of those, 40.4% were from sudden arrhythmia.
As in individuals with a J-point elevation of at least 0.1 mV, those with an elevation of greater than 0.2 mV in the inferior leads had an increased risk of death from cardiac causes (RR 2.98, 95% CI 1.85 to 4.92) and from sudden arrhythmia (RR 2.92, 95% CI 1.45 to 5.89).
Nearly half of those with an elevation of more than 0.2 mV (47.2%) died from cardiac causes, compared with 17.2% among those who did not have the early repolarization pattern (P<0.001).
