Sexual dysfunctions in a sample of schizophrenic outpatients.
El Kissi, Yousri*,1, 2, Dardour, Aïcha1, Amara, Ghanem 1, 2, Ben Nasr, Selma 1, 2, Ben Haj Ali, Béchir1, 2, 1 Service de psychiatrie de Sousse, Sousse, Sousse, Tunisie2 Faculté de médecine de Sousse, Sousse, Sousse, Tunisie
ABSTRACT- Introduction Sexual dysfunctions are common among schizophrenic patients. They may be due to many etiologies, mainly medication, and can also contribute to the quality of life impairment of these patients. Objective The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and the different types of sexual dysfunctions among schizophrenic patients. It is also in search of the correlations of these dysfunctions with clinical characteristics, treatment side effects and quality of life. Material and Methods It is a transversal descriptive study concerning a group of male and female patients attending psychiatric outpatient unit of a general hospital. The including criteria are: -diagnosis of schizophrenia following the DSM IV criteria -neuroleptic medication since at least 6 months -patients agreement to be interviewed Patient recruitment was done between July and September 2004. They were interviewed by the psychiatrists of the unit. The studied variables were assessed by: The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) The Scale of Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) The Scale of Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) The UKU side effect rating scale The Heinrich Quality of Life Scale (QLS) J.Cotraux Male and Female Sexual Dysfunction Scale Results 64 schizophrenic patients were assessed (49 males and 15 females). 43 of them had, at least, one sexual dysfunction (37 males and 6 females). The most important disorder in males was erectile dysfunction. It showed significant correlations with SAPS (p = 0.045), UKU (p = 0.042) and QLS (p = 0.031) scores. Female dysfunctions were predominated by desire and arousal disorders, with no significant correlations. Conclusion Sexual dysfunctions are very common in our sample and some of them are correlated with the patients clinical characteristics and the quality of life. Further studies are required to determine the respective implications of the disease features and the treatment side effects.
Key words: sexual dysfunction, schizophrenia, quality of life