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Ntry, patients range from age 18 to 98. The average is 55 to 64. The men's most common complaint is that they cannot achieve or maintain an erection, Dr. W.R. Ameen said. Dr. Rex Dillingham added: "They're not personally happy about it, and they feel obliged to do better, for their wives if for no other reason." Whatever you think of the Viagra commercials featuring Dole and others, they brought a difficult subject out into the open. Many a male patient now feels comfortable asking a female nurse about Viagra samples, said Stinson, who practices with University Specialty Clinics. "Viagra really helped to break down people's inhibitions," said Ameen, a longtime family and emergency physician before he went to work at the clinic. "Years ago, a big he-man wouldn't come in and tell you he couldn't get" an erection. Ameen and Dillingham see tougher cases of ED at the clinic, which draws about 50 patients a day, six days a week. Most of their patients already have tried Viagra. Many come from out of town. The clinic's doctors often prescribe Viagra with other therapies. Dillingham said given the similarities between Viagra and Levitra, there may not be a vast difference in how they work. "But to some patients, it could be an important difference," he said. Some men find Viagra is less effective over time, he said. And doctors treating other diseases, such as hypertension, sometimes find subtle differences in how patients respond to similar drugs. Ameen said the main benefit for some men might be mental: new drug, new name, perhaps new succe
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