170 The Relation Between Mental Health and Sexuality in Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Although sometimes neglected, a healthy sexuality is important for our mental well-being. Unfortunately, sexual dysfunctions are widespread in the general population but almost double in psychiatric patients compared to the general public. However, even though the prevalence of sexual dysfunctions has been examined, little is known about the impact of sexual dysfunctions on quality of life and sexual satisfaction. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of sexual dysfunctions on quality of life and sexual satisfaction in various psychiatric patient groups. We first developed a new questionnaire, which was piolet-tested beforehand, in a large university hospital (Landschaftsverband Rheinland, LVR Essen) in Germany. Ethics approval was granted by the local Ethics hospital board. Over the course of 3 years, 1500 questionnaires were handed out to patients of the LVR hospital in Essen. Prior to study participation, all participants gave written consent in line with the declaration of Helsinki (1975). Our control subjects were recruited via an online internet portal of the LVR hospital Essen and the University of Landau, Germany. The questionnaire consisted of 59 items grouped into four general scales, ”general satisfaction“, “anxiety/depression“, “sexual satisfaction“ and “sexual dysfunctions“. Only questionnaires that were completely filled out were included in our analyses. Statistical analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 20. In total, we compared healthy controls (N=293) with borderline personality disorder patients (N=52), patients suffering from depression (N=202), patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, N=32) and patients with multiple drug use (N=61).