Author:

Keywords:

sexual dysfunctions, sexual distress, Social Sciences, Psychology, Clinical, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Psychology, Social Sciences - Other Topics, DSM DIAGNOSTIC-CRITERIA, DESIRE DISORDER, UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, DYSFUNCTION DIAGNOSIS, REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE, LIKELY IMPLICATIONS, AROUSAL, DEFINITIONS, ATTITUDES, LIFE, Adult, Age Distribution, Aged, Belgium, Comorbidity, Female, Heterosexuality, Humans, Internet, Libido, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Prevalence, Sex Distribution, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological, Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological, Sexual Partners, Young Adult, 1699 Other Studies in Human Society, 1701 Psychology, Gender Studies, 4405 Gender studies, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

As most epidemiological surveys on sexual problems have not included assessment of associated distress, the principal aim of this study was to provide prevalence estimates of both DSM-IV-TR-defined (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000) and less commonly assessed sexual difficulties and dysfunction (e.g. lack of reponsive sexual desire, lack of subjective arousal). A secondary aim was to obtain information about comobidity between sexual desire and sexual arousal difficulties/dysfunction. This study comprised an online survey completed by 35,132 heterosexual Flemish men and women (aged 16 to 74 years). Results indicated that sexual dysfunctions were far less common than sexual difficulties, and some uncommonly assessed sexual problems (e.g. , "lack of responsive desire" in women; "hyperactive sexual desire" in men) were quite prevalent. In women, there was a high comorbidity between "lack of spontaneous sexual desire" and "lack of responsive sexual desire"; between "lack of genital arousal" and "lack of subjective sexual arousal"; and between sexual desire and sexual arousal difficulties/dysfunctions. The implications of these findings for epidemiological research on sexual dysfunction and for the newly defined DSM-5 Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (APA, 2013) are discussed