I can’t begin to imagine what a group therapy session on this topic would be like. I know I’d be embarrassed to talk about such a private topic.

Men who participate in group psychotherapy sessions and take medication to treat erectile dysfunction have better success than those who take medication alone, a new study shows.

A team of Cochrane researchers used data from nine randomized trials and two quasi-randomized trials involving 398 men with erectile dysfunction who had been given just psychotherapy, just medication, or psychotherapy and medication, or vacuum devices. Another 59 men with ED were placed in non-treatment control groups.

The Cochrane Systematic Review found that 95 percent of the men who received group psychosocial therapy benefited from the treatment. There was no benefit in the control group. Psychotherapy coupled with the drug sildenafil, more commonly known as Viagra, worked better than just using Viagra alone, the study also showed.

Researchers believe psychotherapy benefited the men because sexual function relies “on the coordination of psychological, endocrine, vascular and neurological factor.”

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