Introduction
Sexuality
is an important aspect of quality of life and sexual fantasies comprise a
normal part of human sexuality. However, the nature of sexuality and sexual
fantasies of patients with mental illness remains an understudied area.
Aim
To
investigate the nature and frequency of sexual fantasies in psychiatric
patients, the present study compared the frequency of four types of sexual
fantasies across four different mood and psychotic diagnoses and three
personality disorder clusters.
Methods
Study
participants included 133 psychiatric inpatients recruited from an urban
hospital. Sexual fantasies were compared across patients with schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, major depressive disorder and three
nonclinical samples from the literature and then correlated with personality
cluster scores.
Main Outcome Measures
Subjects
were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV for Axis I
and for Axis II Disorders. Sexual fantasies were assessed by the Wilson Sexual
Fantasies Questionnaire, which measures four types of sexual fantasies
(exploratory, intimate, impersonal, and sadomasochistic).
Results
Within
the entire sample, there were significant differences across sexual fantasy
types, with subjects scoring highest on intimate sexual fantasies and then
exploratory, impersonal, and sadomasochistic. There were no significant
differences across mood and psychotic diagnostic groups for any of the sexual
fantasy scales and the scores were within the normative range of nonclinical
samples. Patients with high cluster B scores scored significantly higher on all
four fantasy scales than those without. Patients with high cluster A scores
scored lower on intimate fantasies, but there was no association between
cluster C scores and sexual fantasies. The association between cluster B and
sexual fantasies remained consistent across Structured Clinical Interview for
DSM-IV for Axis I diagnoses (no interaction effect).
Conclusion
Patients
with severe mental illness report sexual fantasies that are largely affiliative
in nature and consistent with normative patterns. This suggests that assessment
and treatment of sexual issues in the mentally ill should be part of the
clinical routine as it is in healthy individuals.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/vkOShV
By: Giancarlo Colón Vilar,
MD, Erika Concepción, MD, Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, Thachell Tanis, BA, Firouz
Ardalan, BA, Zimri Yaseen,
MD, Lisa J. Cohen, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, NY, USA
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv insight
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