Following a suggestion, based on animal experiments, that guanethidine administration may lead to permanent catecholamine depletion in genital organs, a study was undertaken to determine the reversibility of guanethidine-induced side effects in man. Twenty-eight male patients who had been treated with the drug for long periods were interviewed and examined; a similar investigation was carried out, for purposes of comparison, on 27 patients treated with methyldopa. Side effects were frequent with both drugs but disappeared on cessation of therapy. Details and statistical comparisons are presented in the paper. Not a single case of permanent sexual failure unequivocably attributable to long-term guanethidine therapy has been encountered, and this seems to be in accordance with our clinical experience which includes treatment of several hundred patients followed for up to 12 years.
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Bauer et al. (1973) studied this question.
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