Treating erectile dysfunction through electronic consultation: a pilot study.

We investigated a group of men suffering from electric dysfunction (ED) who visited the website www.erectie.info and who had received consultation through the Internet (n = 219). We measured the treatment's effectiveness using the 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5; Rosen et al., 1996; Rosen, Cappelleri, Smith, Lipsky, & Pena, 1999) and a global assessment question (GAQ). We investigated the motives and characteristics of the users of electronics consultation using a questionnaire. After a few months, the consultation group showed a considerably higher IIEF-5 score compared with their baseline score. Eighty-one percent replied in the affirmative to the GAQ. E-consultation is likely to be effective when treating ED, especially among men who find the medium convenient and for men who experience much embarrassment.