Introduction
Impairment in sexual function is frequent and underestimated in patients with mental disorders, particularly in those with mood disorders. Few studies have examined the relationship between sexual dysfunctions and the clinical characteristics of mood disorders.
Aim
The aim of the present study was to explore the frequency of sexual dysfunctions in patients with bipolar I disorder (BD) and unipolar depression (UD) with respect to control subjects, as well as their relationship with suicidality.
Main Outcome Measures
Assessments included: the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (SCID-I/P), the 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Mood Spectrum Self-Report, a questionnaire exploring lifetime mood spectrum symptomatology including symptoms of sexual functioning and suicidality.
Methods
A consecutive sample of 142 patients (60 BD and 82 UD) and a comparison group of 101 control subjects were recruited in a multicenter study involving 11 academic departments of psychiatry.
Results
Lifetime impairment in the sexual response cycle, including desire, excitement, and ability to achieve orgasm, was significantly more common in patients with mood disorders compared with control subjects. Increase in sexual activity and promiscuity were significantly more common in patients with BD vs. the other two groups.
Lifetime dysfunctions in all three phases of the sexual response cycle explored were significantly associated with lifetime suicide attempts in patients with BD and with thoughts of death in patients with UD. In BD patients, the lifetime presence of periods with frequent changes of sexual partners was significantly associated with thoughts of death.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest the importance of assessing sexual dysfunctions in patients with either BD or UD, as they may be clinically helpful in identifying phenotypes of mood disorders characterized by high suicidality.
The lower leg model used in this study is an advanced FE model of the lower limb, validated under various situations. Its accurate anatomical description allows a wide range of applications. According to the validity domain of the model, it offered a valuable tool for the numerical evaluation of potential injuries and the definition of injury risk criterion for knee joint.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.