Psychological condition and personality characteristics of patients with erectile dysfunction in various age groups / 中华泌尿外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the differences of psychological condition of erectile dysfunction (ED) patients in different age groups.Methods:The emotion, personality and interpersonal relationship outpatients with ED were evaluated by the method of Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90), State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). A retrospective analysis was conducted and a total of 401 ED patients (aged 20-60) were divided into 4 groups [20-29(n=158), 30-39(n=182), 40-49(n=38), 50-60 (n=23)years old] from July 2018 to July 2019. The erectile function of the patients was evaluated by the international erectile function scale (IIEF-5). The symptoms of hostility, anxiety, psychotic, horrible, paranoid, obsession, somatization, interpersonal relationship and depression were evaluated by SCL-90. Furthermore, STAI was used to distinguish whether the patients had state or trait anxiety. Then EPQ was used to analyze the personality types of patients. The differences of SCL-90, STAI and EPQ between the patients and the national norm group were analyzed by the two sample t-test. The variance analysis was conducted to compare the score differences of scales among different age groups of ED patients. The chi square test was conducted to compare the distribution differences of personality types among different age groups. Results:The scores of hostility(1.64±0.67, t=4.81, P<0.001), anxiety(1.58±0.66, t=6.83, P<0.001), psychotic(1.62±0.68, t=11.87, P<0.001), paranoid(1.55±0.66, t=3.58, P=0.0004), obsession(1.95±0.70, t=9.56, P<0.001), somatization(1.43±0.58, t=2.10, P=0.036), interpersonal relationship(1.74±0.74, t=2.79, P=0.005), depression (1.66±0.74, t=4.50, P<0.001)and the total scores (1.53±0.63, t=3.07, P=0.002)of SCL-90 in the patient group were significantly higher than those of the national norm group, and there were significant differences in the scores of interpersonal relationship among different age groups(1.72±0.78, 1.65±0.69, 1.58±0.92, 1.43±0.59, F=2.84, P=0.038). The scores of state anxiety( t=7.35, P<0.001), trait anxiety ( t=6.31, P<0.001)and the total scores ( t=8.41, P<0.001)of STAI in the patient group were significantly higher than those of the national norm, and there were significant differences in the scores of state anxiety( F=5.29, P=0.001), trait anxiety ( F=5.54, P<0.001)and total scores ( F=5.66, P<0.001)among different age groups. There were significant increases in the scores of psychoticism( t=30.56, P<0.001), emotion( t=45.94, P<0.001), extraversion and introversion( t=11.72, P<0.001), concealment factors ( t=29.16, P<0.001)and total scores ( t=30.56, P<0.001)in the patient group. The proportion of depressive personality was highest in the ED patients(n=183; 45.64%), but there was no significant difference in the distribution of personality types among different age groups[20-29(depressive, choleric, mucinous and sanguine) 76, 35, 26, 21; 30-39 87, 40, 32, 23; 40-49 14, 10, 6, 8; 50-60 6, 9, 2, 6; χ 2=10.65, P=0.30]. Conclusions:ED patients have a series of abnormal emotions, somatized discomfort, sensitive interpersonal relationships, introverted and unstable emotionally personality characteristics. In addition, the younger the patients are, the more serious their anxiety are, the more sensitive their interpersonal relationships are, which may be related to their introverted personality characteristics and emotional instability.