Title: Conquering New Frontiers in Clinical Psychology: The Sexual Medicine
Abstract: Sexuality is one of the fundamental and integral aspects of human beings. The term sexual dysfunction denotes the various ways in which an individual is unable to participate successfully or satisfactorily in the sexual relationship. Psychological and somatic processes are usually involved in the causation of sexual dysfunction. Hence no single expert can deal with sexual problems adequately and scientifically as these are stemming out from multi factorial etiology. A multi disciplinary team is inevitable to arrive at the correct diagnosis and effective management of sexual problems. This concept inspired the author to establish Dr. Promodu's Institute of Sexual & Marital Health in 2006 in Kochi exclusively for the management of sexual dysfunction. From 31st January 2006 to 31st January 2012, a total of 12,718 new cases were seen. These patients belong to various diagnostic categories comprising of different age groups, genders, marital status, socioeconomic background, languages, cultures, hailing from different parts of the country and a few foreigners. Out of the 12,718 patients, 10,977 comprise of 9,605 (87.5%) men and 1,372 (12.5%) women had sexual problems. The common sexual dysfunctions for which men sought treatment are erectile dysfunction (ED) (63.10%), premature ejaculation (30.40%), male orgasmic dysfunction (3.27%), sexual desire disorder (2.96%), sexual aversion disorder (0.28%) and excessive sexual desire (0.01%). Analysis of 1372 women shows that vaginismus (59.06%) is the most common sexual dysfunction among women for which treatment was sought followed by female orgasmic dysfunction (12.58%), female sexual desire disorder (11.83%), female sexual arousal disorder (6.93%), dyspareunia (5.97%) and female sexual aversion disorder (3.52%). Thirty percent of the cases were treated with medicines alone, 34% with a combination of medicine and psychological intervention, 11% with sex therapy alone, 10% with cognitive behaviour therapy and 5% with surgery. In short psychological intervention either alone or in combination was used in 55% cases. Results show that the overall recovery rate is 80.79%. 54% had full recovery and 27% had significant symptomatic improvement. The patients who did not get any significant improvement and the drop outs together accounts for 19%. These findings not only demonstrate the relevance of psychological intervention especially sex therapy but also highlights the importance of a comprehensive multidisciplinary model in the management of human sexual problems and concerns.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot