Sex on the brain

A new sex drug for women works not on the sexual organs like the male impotency pill Viagra, but the brain, it emerged today.

Ian Russell, a specialist nurse at Dumfries and Galloway NHS Trust, is encouraged by tests on 10 women during an 18-week study.

The women, who suffer from lack of sexual desire, were treated with the drug apomorphine.

Eight of the 10 women reported a heightened sexual desire after using the drug, which mimics the effect of one of the brain's main chemical messengers, dopamine.

"The results were astonishing," Mr Russell told BBC's Horizon, which will screen a programme about his research tonight. But despite the encouraging initial results from Scotland, scientists remain cautious and the specialist nurse agrees that more research is needed. He has begun a much larger clinical trial, which should be completed next year.

The development comes as drug companies come under fire for allegedly trying to cash in on the potentially large market for elixirs to sexual performance. Earlier this month, they were accused by leading British medics of "creating" a new condition of "female sexual dysfunction" which critics say is a myth designed to boost demand for drugs. An editorial in the British Medical Journal pointed out that many researchers who have published papers or attended conferences on the disorder had financial links with drugs companies, while actual evidence for female sexual dysfunction was scarce.

Since its launch in 1998, scientists have been investigating whether Viagra, used by more than 20 million men worldwide, could work for women too. Global sales of the product, produced by US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer, were about £4billion when it was first marketed in Europe.