Sexual Functions in Male and Female Patients With Bipolar Disorder During Remission

Bipolar disorder is an episodic mood disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood and affects the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

Evaluation of the sexual function in men and women with bipolar disorder during remission.

60 men and women with bipolar disorder and 60 age-matched control subjects were included. A Structured Clinical Interview of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition was performed to confirm the diagnosis, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) to assess the depressive symptoms and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) to assess the manic symptoms. We assessed sexual function in both sexes using international indices of erectile function for men and sexual function of women.

Scores of HAM-D, YMRS, Arabic versions of International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and female sexual function (FSFI).

Depressive symptoms showed insignificant adverse correlation with the IIEF in men, whereas they revealed adverse significant correlations with the items of female sexual function index (FSFI) except pain (correlation coefficients [r] = 0.349 [P = .059], r = 0.680 [P < .001], r = 0.574 [P = .001], r = 0.517 [P = .003], r = 0.569 [P = .001], r = 0.532 [P = .002], r = 0.609 [P < .001], r = 0.342 [P = .065], respectively). Interestingly, the manic symptoms were associated with sexual hyperfunctioning in the men and were insignificantly correlated with the different items of FSFI in the women (r = 0.414 [P = .023], r = 0.043 [P = .821], r = 0.100 [P = .601], r = 0.108 [P = .571], r = 0.183 [P = .332), r = 0.086 [P = .651], r = 0.022 (P = .907), r = 0.109 [P = .565], respectively). There was a positive correlation between the affected women's satisfaction and their partners' score (r = 0.374, P =.042). Finally, the mean score of pain was statistically higher in the female cases than the normal ones (mean ± SD = 3.6 ± 0.4, 3.4, ± 0.6; P = .036).

A different approach may be mandatory for manic female patients.

This study is one of the few studies that evaluated the sexual function in patients with bipolar disorder especially during remission. Some limitations of this study must be mentioned. We failed to evaluate the female partners of the diseased males. Quality of life of the recruited patients was not assessed. Finally, the study included patients who were not drug free.

Manic symptoms in female bipolar I patients are associated with sexual hypofunctioning. Elkhiat YI, Seif AFA, Khalil MA, et al. Sexual functions in male and female patients with bipolar disorder during remission. J Sex Med 2018;15:1111-1116.