Ahhh, The Green Man is in a mischievous mood this morning and what better science related topic to benefit from The Green Man's distorted view of the world than Viagra.

It is fair to say when you are using the terms "performance anxiety" and "man" in the same sentence then it is almost always in reference to their bedroom antics. It would be a brave man who claimed that this had never been a problem and so it was that the male 50% of the population of the developed world breathed a sigh of relief with the advent of this range of wonder drugs, Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. Not that they all use them of course but is nice to know they are there, just in case.

When Viagra was first released it was marketed as a chemical support for those men of later years who were having problems in the downstairs department. This was a serious marketing oversight since it seems that the demographic that is embracing biotechnologies gift to men, and indirectly women, is the 18-45 year old man. Suddenly, your average young man's staying power is in the same ballpark as those characters in the Mills and Boon romance novels. Usage rates by this group of Viagra alone increased 31% during the 1998-2002 period and it is still growing. Older men are still the biggest users but not for much longer probably.

In 2002 in America more than five million men claimed Viagra on their medical benefits scheme. This represented 1.4% of the adult male population. (Presumably many more happily forked out for it out of their own pocket.)

Sadly economic rationalism has made it into the bedroom and the men who manage the large American Health Plans, instead of being happy for the increased performance that Viagra is delivering to their brothers are having their own performance anxiety. This time over the size of their performance bonuses as the supply of these drugs eats into the overall profitability of the health funds.

Already concerned with the impact Viagra has had on their pharmacy budgets, health plan sponsors now face the prospect of increased use among a younger, healthier generation of patients

Says Dr Tom Delate who conducted the research. Dr Tom works for Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy groups in the US who are laughing all the way to the bedroom, errr bank.

Read more here.