Current practice and resource utilisation in men diagnosed with premature ejaculation

Objectives: To compare the healthcare resource utilisation of men diagnosed with premature ejaculation (PE) with that of age-matched men without a PE diagnosis, through a retrospective analysis of US medical claims data. Methods: Data were from the PHARMetrics® Database. Records of patients ≥ 18 years of age diagnosed with PE (n = 1245) and age-matched controls (n = 3915) were compared with regard to number of physician encounters, concomitant medical diagnoses, drug therapies and treatment costs. Results: Men diagnosed with PE visited their physicians twice as frequently in the year before their diagnosis as men in the control group. Men diagnosed with PE were more likely to receive a prescription for a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor after their diagnosis than before and used more of these compared with controls. Prior to their PE diagnosis, patients received more (and more frequent) comorbid diagnoses than controls, and their mean yearly diagnosis and prescription costs were $1320 (vs. $447 for controls). In the year after the PE diagnosis, diagnosis and prescription costs fell by 24% (to $998), primarily because of a reduction in physician visits. Conclusions: Compared with controls, men with PE who sought help from a healthcare professional consumed more medical resources, primarily because of a higher number of physician visits and greater use of prescription drugs. Further research is warranted to determine if the observed associations between PE and other diagnoses indicate genuine aetiological factors or reporting bias.