An ambitious new clinical trial is investigating whether a drug currently given to prostate cancer patients could reduce the risk of paedophiles acting on their fantasies towards children.
Volunteers in Stockholm, Sweden, who admit to having sexual fantasies involving children are being given an injection of degarelix.
The drug drastically reduces the amount of testosterone in the body, bringing it down to around the level commonly found in a prepubescent boy. Cancer patients taking the drug have reported experiencing a loss of libido as a side effect, something the scientists hope to turn to an advantage in the new study.
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Dr Christoffer Rahm, who is lead the research, told Sky News he hoped the drug could reduce paedophiles' sexual urges.
"What is considered to be a negative side effect when you use the drug for advanced prostate cancer – reduced sexual arousal – is the effect we want to have in this context," he said.
Half of the volunteers will be given a shot of degarelix, while the remaining 60 will receive a placebo. Brain scans and psychological tests of the two groups will then be compared to assess whether the drug appears to have had an effect on their libido.
None of the 120 self-confessed paedophiles participating in the study has been accused of committing any crimes against children.
One participant said he feared he might one day commit a crime and hoped the study could lead to a cure allowing him to live a normal life.
"We didn't choose to be this way," he told Sky. "And yet nobody accepts us, everybody hates us, we can't be open with it."
Researchers believe that around five per cent of adults have had sexual fantasies about children and action is needed to prevent them becoming offenders. "We need to shift the focus away from what to do when the damage is already done on to preventing the sexual abuse happening in the first place," they said.
