Sexual Activity, Sexual Dysfunction, and Sexual Life Quality Among Psychiatric Hospital Inpatients With Schizophrenia

Sexual dysfunction occurs commonly in patients with psychiatric illness and may be related to the primary mental disorder, comorbidity with sexual disorders or medical illness, or medications used for mental disorders treatment, but the magnitude of this problem is unknown.

To estimate the prevalence of current sexual activity, sexual dysfunction, and sexual attitude and influence of factors on patients with schizophrenia.

This study used a cross-sectional design with a total of 317 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. The subjects completed a demographic questionnaire, sexual attitude scale, sexual dysfunction scale, and sexual behavior scale. Descriptive analysis, difference analysis, and logistic regression model were used to identify relevant variables that may affect sexual life quality.

Age, sexual satisfaction, and patient symptoms may predict sexual life quality on patients with schizophrenia.

The mean age of patients was 47.71 ± 9.54 years old. About the sexual activities, 53% of subjects had sexual intercourse experience, and 41.3% reported currently having sexual intercourse. The mean ± SD age for first sexual intercourse was 20.83 ± 5.95 years old (median was 20.0 years old). Moreover, women older than 50 years had significantly higher medians for the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) score, higher proportions of sexual dysfunction, and lower proportions of feeling important to sexual life quality than men. For participants with age ≤50 years old, there was a significant relationship among BPRS group (mean score >2.5 vs ≤2.5), sexual dysfunction (P < .001), sexual life quality (P < .001), and sexual satisfaction (P = .006). Among the predictors of feeling important to sexual life quality, sexual satisfaction (odds ratio = 7.005, 95% CI = 4.126-11.892, P < .001) and BPRS score (odds ratio = 4.501, 95% CI = 2.042-9.923, P < .001) were significant independent factors after adding the interaction of age group and BPRS group.

This study also reveals the close relationship between sexual satisfaction and BPRS score, which may predict sexual life quality of patients with schizophrenia. Limitations include the possibility of underreporting and bias associated with self-report measurement.

Sexual life quality and sexual dysfunction on patients with schizophrenia are associated with interaction among psychological, sociological, and biochemical-pharmacological factors. Ma M-C, Chao J-K, Hung J-Y, et al. Sexual Activity, Sexual Dysfunction, and Sexual Life Quality Among Psychiatric Hospital Inpatients With Schizophrenia. J Sex Med 2018;15:324-333.