Drug reduces sex drive

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 8

Drug reduces sex drive

(By

NICHOLAS SHUMAN.

of the "Chicago Daily News," through N.Z.P.A.)

WEST BERLIN. A drug that reduces excessive sex drive in males is creating interest in West German police and legal circles as a possible new means of treating sexual offenders.

The drug has been tested successfully on 547 men in West Germany and Switzerland and has been submitted for certification by the West German Health Agency for public .use. Approval is not expected until the end of this year, but some West German courts, anticipating confirmation, already are offering the drug to sex

offenders as an alternative! to imprisonment. The drug, produced in tablet form, is an anti-andro-gen. It counters the effects of the hormone, androgen, which in the male causes the seXual drive, sperm production and potency. Schering A. G., of Berlin, whose research scientists discovered it, deny that the drug will castrate chemically. FUNCTION RESTORED They say that while the pills are being taken (daily, under the test applications) production of sperm cells is inhibited without damage to testicle tissues. Six months at the latest after treatment is halted, they report, full sex function is restored. The drug also shows promise of being able to control excessive male-hormone production in females which may cause abnormal growth of hair, and the development of masculine characteristics. The Schering Corporation of the United States, is concentrating on this and other possible uses in its own tests of the substance, according to Schering A. G. spokesmen, whose laboratories have concentrated on male hypersexuality. The market is not expected to be large, and the drug will be expensive because of the high cost of research and production. Anti-androgens do tio occur naturally. Dr Friedmund Neumann, the chief or Schering A, G.’s department of endocrinology, was hunting for an androgen when the anti-androgen came to light.

OBSERVED IN RATS > Its effect was first observed in female rats 1 which, injected with the sub- : stance, produced only off- , spring that appeared to be s female but turned but to be males with missing or under- ‘ developed sex oreans. Eight years of research followed, including completion of testing by clinical doctors. Legal authorities in West Germany anticipate that sexual offenders will be permitted to forgo imprisonment if they promise to undergo androcur therapy to subdue their urges, while at the same time undergoing psychiatric treatment to get: at the underlying roots of their sexual aggressions. The drug is available in injection form, to insure compliance. Schering A. G. spokesmen estimate that 40 per cent of offenders treated will be

i pederasts—child molesters —: both heterosexual and homosexual, and a third more will be exhibitionists. Others will be rapists, arsonists (generally considered to be sex deviants) peeping toms, fetishists and deviates not necessarily having criminal tendencies, such as transvestites (males who dress in female garb and vice versa).