Yoga in premature ejaculation: a comparative trial with fluoxetine.
BACKGROUND
Yoga is a popular form of complementary and alternative treatment. It is practiced both in developing and developed countries. Use of yoga for various bodily ailments is recommended in ancient ayvurvedic (ayus = life, veda = knowledge) texts and is being increasingly investigated scientifically. Many patients and yoga protagonists claim that it is useful in sexual disorders. We are interested in knowing if it works for patients with premature ejaculation (PE) and in comparing its efficacy with fluoxetine, a known treatment option for PE.


OBJECTIVE
To know if yoga could be tried as a treatment option in PE and to compare it with fluoxetine.


METHODS
A total of 68 patients (38 yoga group; 30 fluoxetine group) attending the outpatient department of psychiatry of a tertiary care hospital were enrolled in the present study. Both subjective and objective assessment tools were administered to evaluate the efficacy of the yoga and fluoxetine in PE. Three patients dropped out of the study citing their inability to cope up with the yoga schedule as the reason.


METHODS
Intravaginal ejaculatory latencies in yoga group and fluoxetine control groups.


RESULTS
We found that all 38 patients (25-65.7% = good, 13-34.2% = fair) belonging to yoga and 25 out of 30 of the fluoxetine group (82.3%) had statistically significant improvement in PE.


CONCLUSIONS
Yoga appears to be a feasible, safe, effective and acceptable nonpharmacological option for PE. More studies involving larger patients could be carried out to establish its utility in this condition.
Dhikav
Vikas
V
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. vikasdhikav@hotmail.com
Karmarkar
Girish
G
Gupta
Mallika
M
Anand
Kuljeet Singh
KS
D000328:Adult; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007989:Libido; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D020377:Self Efficacy; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015013:Yoga
D005473:Fluoxetine; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors