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Opening Arguments

Think globally, act locally

Sorry, guys, no shortcuts:

A new drug designed to boost sexual desire in women is controversial for some and eagerly awaited by others, but it's hit a potentially serious snag. The drug didn't boost women's desire any more than a placebo in two clinical trials.

[. . .]

 In a statement posted on the FDA website, manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim maintains that flibanserin really works, while acknowledging it's better at increasing a woman's "global desire" than "the intensity of [her] acute episodes of desire." That phrasing suggests the drug's effects are, well, rather subtle.

Trouble is, flibanserin has side effects that may outweigh its tepid benefits. About 15 percent of flibanserin users in the experimental trial stopped taking the drug because of bad reactions like dizziness, nausea, anxiety and insomnia, compared to 7 percent of the placebo users.

If I'm understanding this "global" vs. "acute episodes" stuff, I gather that flibanserin makes women more predisposed to the idea of a physical interlude rather than increasing their enjoyment of an actual encounter. That seems to put it into the same category as Charles Schulz's observation in "Peanuts" (through Linus, I believe) that "I love mankind. It's people I can't stand."

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