Psychological characteristics of males with secondary erectile failure.

This study was designed to obtain objective data on the personality profiles of two groups of males with a primary complaint of erectile failure and compare them to a group of psychiatric patients unselected for sexual dysfunction and to a sexually "normal" control group. Utilizing the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Institute of Personality and Ability Testing Anxiety Scale, Symptom Checklist, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, it was determined that males applying to a university/county hospital sex-dysfunction clinic appeared similar to patients seen in the same clinic who were unselected for sex dysfunction and more psychologically disturbed than patients with the same complaint applying for treatment at a private clinic. All three groups showed more psychopathology than sexually normal males. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Retarded ejaculation: a review.

Retarded ejaculation is the persistent difficulty or inability to ejaculate despite the presence of adequate sexual desire, erection, and stimulation. The causes of this dysfunction may be organic, i.e., medical illness or drug ingestion (particularly medications with antiadrenergic effects), the result of surgical interventions, or secondary to inhibiting psychological factors. With regard to psychological determinants, fear, guilt, resentment, and passively have all been implicated, although objective studies are rare. The sexual object choice of men with retarded ejaculation has ben reported by several clinicians and investigators to be other than adult members of the opposite sex, while the marital relationship of these males has been considered etiological in other instances. Outcome assessment to date consists mostly of individual case reports or reports on small groups of patients treated without controls. To some extent, routine reliance on long-term traditional therapy has yielded to shorter, symptomatic learning-based treatments. While improved outcomes have been reported, many patients do not respond well. It is not yet possible to objectively predict succes or failure. Since it is our impression that this sexual dysfunction is more common than previously assumed (or is increasing in frequency), our present lack of data should soon be remedied.