Anxiety induction and sexual arousal in men and women

Abstract

Anxiety can sometimes inhibit and sometimes potentiate sexual arousal. We examined whether an anxiety manipulation in a classical fear-conditioning paradigm impacts self-reported sexual arousal in men and women. University students (62 men, 61 women) underwent differential fear conditioning to erotic images; half the images were sometimes (60%) paired with a shock (CS+) and half were never paired with a shock (CS−). For each trial, participants rated their sexual arousal and anxiety in response to the image; skin conductance response (SCR) and zygomatic and corrugator activity were recorded. During acquisition, self-reported sexual arousal was lower to CS+ than CS− (inhibiting effect), but in men only. During extinction, self-reported sexual arousal was lower to CS+ than CS− for both genders. Some differences produced by CS+ and CS− were observed for SCR and zygomatic and corrugator activation at different points during acquisition and extinction, but the effects were unrelated to ratings of anxiety or sexual arousal. The negative impact of anxiety on sexual arousal appears to be resistant to extinction, and small gender differences were observed. Future studies should include direct measures of physiological sexual arousal. The relationship between sexual arousal and anxiety appears to be complex and should be further investigated.

Using network analysis to model associations between psychological symptoms, sexual function, and sexual distress in women

“…Indeed, examination of our data supports that over 75 % of our sample reported an anxiety score below the midway point of the scale, so it is possible we were unable to capture potential bridges between the two sets of symptoms typically observed in clinical samples. Another explanation, in line with the Dual Control Model, may be that anxiety may paradoxically increase sexual function in some individuals through transference of physiological arousal to sexual excitation or through the interplay of excitatory and inhibitory pathways ( Barlow et al, 1983 ; Ashbaugh et al, 2022 ; Janssen & Bancroft, 2023 ; Kane et al, 2019 ).…”