Sexual impairment in psychiatric inpatients: focus on depression

Although sexual side effects are a common reason for noncompliance with medication, information on impairment of sexuality in psychiatric inpatients is scarce.

In the present multi-center study, data on several aspects of sexual functioning were collected in psychiatric inpatients using a previously validated questionnaire.

A high overall prevalence of sexual dysfunction was reported by participants and was highest in depressed subjects. Patients receiving antidepressants suffered from more frequent and more severe impairment of sexuality than did subjects receiving neither antidepressants nor antipsychotics or opioids.

Judging from this data, sexual impairment appears to be a frequent and underestimated problem in psychiatric inpatients with a high prevalence across all diagnostic groups, particularly in depressed subjects. Female patients attribute this impairment mainly to their mental illness, whereas male patients tend to assign their impairments primarily to their medication.