Eli Lilly reports that treatment with its drug tadalafil (Cialis) — the only medicine approved for treating both benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and erectile dysfunction — generates more treatment satisfaction than combination therapies with Cialis and other drugs.

The study, “Treatment satisfaction among men with concurrent benign prostatic hyperplasia and erectile dysfunction treated with tadalafil or other phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor combinations,” was published in the journal Patient Preference and Adherence and explored self-reported satisfaction and health-related quality of life in a large survey of men suffering from both BPH and erectile dysfunction.

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) caused by BPH tend to go hand-in-hand with erectile dysfunction, and when reports began coming in that the drugs preferentially used to treat erectile dysfunction — phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors or PDE5-I — also seemed to relieve BPH symptoms, Eli Lilly acted on that to develop Cialis.

Although the drug has been explored in several clinical trials, there has been a lack of real-world data measuring how the treatment is perceived among its users, particularly in relation to other commonly used treatment options.

Recruiting the New York-based healthcare market research firm Kantar Health, Eli Lilly funded an ambitious survey of 507 men in the analyses. The majority had moderate BPH problems and moderate to severe erectile dysfunction. Participants who completed the survey but were treated with Cialis in combination with another PDE5-I drug were not included in the analysis.

Among the participants, 22 percent used Cialis as the sole treatment, while 36 percent were treated with Cialis for erectile dysfunction and an additional drug for BPH, and 41 percent combined another PDE5-I medication for erectile dysfunction with a BPH drug. The types of BPH medications included were alpha-blockers and 5-ARIs (5-alpha-reductase inhibitors).

Patients in the group treated only with Cialis were younger and had fewer co-occurring health problems, but the majority were also more obese and had more problems emptying their bladder.

While the study did not find any differences in health-related quality of life, patients treated with only Cialis reported more treatment satisfaction and ease of treatment planning compared to both other groups. The results were not influenced by severity of symptoms or other patient characteristics.