Transient Global Amnesia Caused By ED Medications?

A recent blog post discovered on a website called Neuroshrink, took a deeper look into why some erectile dysfunction medications such as Cialis or Viagra mark their side effects labels with TGA amnesia, which stands for Transient Global Amnesia.

TGA is not like the amnesia most people are familiar with; you do not lose your memory forever. TGA is categorized as a short term type of amnesia in which you have brief moments of not knowing what you did for the past week of perhaps days.  Transient Global Amnesia is also not permanent and in some cases memory can come back with in a day.

MayoClinic on TGA:

Transient global amnesia is a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that can't be attributed to a more common neurological condition, such as epilepsy or stroke….read more

But can Cialis cause amnesia or is it the sex in general that is responsible?

Some reports are trying to associate the sex with causing TGA.  Since sexual intercourse involves emotional experiences, exercise and excitement, this might be able to trigger the TGA episode rather than Cialis, Viagra or any other ED treatment. TGA is still listed as a side effect on the products label, but this is still debatable since further research has not been conducted into determining if sex could be the real reason why these TGA episodes are presented in some men.

Man who was prescribed Cialis suffered from TGA the next day:

A report posted on Psychiatry Online, reveals a case study on a man who was prescribed the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis Tadalafil and suffered from sudden memory loss the next day, after taking the Cialis that previous night. According to the report, the 48 year old man went to the doctor about his ED problems, got a prescription for Cialis, filled it that same day and took it the same night.

He did not feel any effects after taking it, so he decided to go to bed. When he woke up, he did not recall many things that happened the week or day before, such as visiting the doctor or recent work he had done on his house the previous week.

TGA is one of the many side effects listed on impotence medications. There are more serious ones labeled such as vision loss.  This side effect might not be that alarming to some men, but further research needs to be done to determine if meds for treating ED are the cause of TGA or the actual sexual intercourse itself.