AUTHOR=Jiang Fugui , Liu Zenghui , Wu Xianglong , Tan Arui , Qin Xiaohong , Su Rong Cheng , Li Hui , Wang Huan , Xiao Jun , Zhou Bo 

TITLE=Prevalence of sexual dysfunction and its association with psychological symptoms in drug-naive major depressive disorder patients in West China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1291988

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1291988

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Background: Sexual dysfunction is commonly observed in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), along with various psychological symptoms such as anxiety, somatic complaints, interpersonal sensitivity, and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. However, there is a research gap in understanding the impact of these psychological symptoms on sexual functioning in MDD. Furthermore, there is limited data on the incidence of sexual dysfunction among drug-naive MDD patients in West China. This study aims to determine the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in this patient population and explore its association with other psychological indicators.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patient data from October 2020 to September 2022 using propensity score matching. A focused group of 165 males and 490 females was selected from a total of 1941 MDD patients. This allowed for a comparative analysis of demographic data, as well as scores from the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90),the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX).
Results: Our findings reveal that 46.2% of drug-naive MDD patients experienced sexual dysfunction. Notably, there was a higher  prevalence of sexual dysfunction among female patients (50.3%) compared to males (37.5%). MDD patients without sexual dysfunction consistently exhibited higher SDS scores than those with sexual dysfunction (p < 0.01)，There were no statistically significant differences between male  and female MDD patients with or without concomitant sexual dysfunction in terms of Somatic complaints,Obsessive-compulsive,Interpersonal sensitivity,Anxiety,Phobic anxiety,Paranoid ideation, Psychoticism and Diet/sleep difficulties(p >0.05). In addition, male MDD patients with sexual dysfunction showed a emerging trend towards elevated Hostility scores on the SCL-90 (p = 0.058), male MDD patients with sexual dysfunction showed an increasing trend in hostility scores on the SCL-90, whereas female MDD patients with sexual dysfunction did not show such a trend.
Conclusions: The study highlights a significant gender difference in the prevalence of sexual dysfunction among MDD patients, with females being more susceptible than males. There is a positive correlation between the severity of depression and sexual dysfunction in both genders. Interestingly, male MDD patients demonstrated a potential protective effect of hostility against sexual dysfunction, which was not observed in female patients.