Research view
Title: | Sexual dysfunctions in drug-naive male patients with first-episode schizophrenia: a case–control study |
Author: | Walaa Sabry, Mohamed El Sayed El Taweel and Fadia Zyada |
Abstract: |
Introduction
Sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and other
psychotic disorders, which may be because of their symptoms, hospitalization, or
psychotropic medications. This could have a negative impact on patients’ quality of life.
However, data on this topic are scarce among Egyptian patients.
Aim
We aimed to evaluate and compare types of sexual dysfunctions in a sample of
nonmedicated male patients with first-episode schizophrenia and healthy individuals,
and to determine the possible relationships between the sexual dysfunction domains
and symptom profile among patients.
Patients and methods
The study included 50 male patients aged younger than 50 years, admitted to the
Inpatient Unit of Psychiatric Department, Cairo University, over a 1-year interval.
They were subjected to the following scales: the Mini International Neuropsychiatric
Interview, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Montgomery–Asberg and a
designed questionnaire was also used to collect the patients’ sociodemographic data.
Results
Male patients with schizophrenia have significantly more sexual dysfunction than
healthy controls (56 vs. 6%). There was a statistically significant relationship
(Pr0.001) between long duration of untreated psychosis, severity of negative
symptoms and depressive symptoms with the severity of sexual dysfunction among
patients with schizophrenia.
Conclusion
The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in psychotropic drug-naive male patients with
first-episode schizophrenia was generally high and would suggest that sexual
dysfunction is an integral part of the development of illness and unlikely to be related to
the prolactin-increasing properties of the antipsychotic medication. The study also
concludes that greater symptom severity in the patient group was associated with
greater impairment in sexual function. Therefore, sexual assessment should be a part of
every psychiatric examination.
Keywords:
first episode, male patients, schizophrenia, sexual dysfunctions
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Journal: | Middle East Curr Psychiatry 24:168–173 |
Text: | |
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