title: Two novel combined drug treatments for women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder.
abstract: Low sexual desire is the most common sexual complaint in women. As a result, many women suffer from sexual dissatisfaction which often negatively interferes with their quality of life. These complaints have been classified as the condition Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), and have recently been merged with the condition Female Sexual Arousal Disorder (FSAD) into the diagnosis Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD) in the DSM-5. To date, no drug treatment approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)/European Medicines Agency (EMA) is available to treat women with HSDD/FSIAD. As a result, there is an unmet need for a drug treatment for HSDD/FSIAD. In our search for an adequate treatment we followed a different approach compared to other pharmaceutical companies. Based on a personalized sexual medicine approach we proposed that different mechanisms cause low sexual desire in women, namely an insensitive system for sexual cues or dysfunctional activation of sexual inhibitory mechanisms. Subsequently we developed two new on-demand drug treatments for women with HSDD/FSIAD based on these different causal mechanisms. One treatment (testosterone combined with a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor) has been developed for women with HSDD/FSIAD due to a relatively insensitive system for sexual cues, while the second treatment (testosterone combined with a 5-HT₁A receptor agonist) has been developed for women with HSDD/FSIAD due to dysfunctional activation of sexual inhibitory mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Emotional Brain B.V., Louis Armstrongweg 78, 1311RL Almere, The Netherlands; Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: s.poels@emotionalbrain.nl.
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poels
authors.affiliation: Emotional Brain B.V., Louis Armstrongweg 78, 1311RL Almere, The Netherlands; Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bloemers
authors.affiliation: Emotional Brain B.V., Louis Armstrongweg 78, 1311RL Almere, The Netherlands; Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van Rooij
authors.affiliation: Emotional Brain B.V., Louis Armstrongweg 78, 1311RL Almere, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koppeschaar
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Berend
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olivier
authors.affiliation: Emotional Brain B.V., Louis Armstrongweg 78, 1311RL Almere, The Netherlands; Department of Psychopharmacology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Adriaan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tuiten
mesh_terms: D003463:Cues; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D058986:Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D057285:Precision Medicine; D011600:Psychopharmacology; D012701:Serotonin / Q000502:physiology; D058825:Serotonin 5-HT1 Receptor Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D020018:Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013739:Testosterone / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D058986:Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibitors; D058825:Serotonin 5-HT1 Receptor Agonists; D012701:Serotonin; D013739:Testosterone
keywords: Female sexual interest/arousal disorder; Hypoactive sexual desire disorder; Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor; Serotonin; Sexual inhibition; Testosterone