A survey of sexual problems amongst psychiatric inpatients

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 39 men and 17 women who had been admitted to the acute psychiatric wards of an inner London psychiatric unit. The patients were seen within 7 days of their admission and were interviewed about existing sexual and relationship problems. The admissions consisted largely of single men with schizophrenia and married or cohabiting women with affective disorders. Of the men, 62% of those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, between 63 and 75% of those with affective disorders and 17% of those with other diagnoses reported current sexual or relationship problems. Of the women, 25% of those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, 50-100% of those with affective disorders and 25% with other diagnoses reported a sexual or relationship problem. The high prevalence of such problems amongst inpatients indicates that such matters should be enquired after and therapeutic interventions considered at the time of admission. We examined the limitations of this work and proposed areas of potential research.