Psychological Factors in Male Sexual Dysfunction: Anxiety, Depression and Gender Role

Moon, Du Geon; Kim, Jin Se; Kim, Je Jong

Abstract

PURPOSE: It has been presumed that male sexual dysfunction correlates highly with psychological factors. We assessed psychological factors such as anxiety, depression, and gender role in patients of psychogenic impotence. We also evaluated the differences in serum lipid profile, norepinephrine and serotonin between the patients and age-matched control subjects.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Twenty-five men with psychogenic impotence were enrolled in this study, and thirty patients were enrolled as the age-matched control subjects. Lipid profile and norepinephrine were measured with random blood samples. Twenty-four hour urinary 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), a urinary metabolite of serotonin, was measured. Psychological assessment, including Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for anxiety, and the Bem Sexual Inventory (BSRI) for gender role, was conducted.
RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the patients and control subjects I any laboratory test except low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The value of LDL wee within normal reference ranges but significantly higher in the patients (p<0.05). Scores for depression (p<0.001), psychasthenia (p<0.001), social introversion (p<0.001), schizophrenia (p<0.01), hypochondriasis (p<0.05), and hysteria (p<0.05) were significantly higher in men with sexual dysfunction than in the controls. Patients with sexual dysfunction had higher scores for state and trait anxiety, especially trait anxiety, than the control subjects (p<0.05). In BSRI, a female profile was more apparent in patients than in the control group (37% versus 14%).
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that psychosocial factors such as stress, anxiety, and depression are highly correlates with male sexual dysfunction. These factors are poorly correlated with random norepinephrine, lipid profiles and serotonin in the patients with sexual dysfunction.