Sexual functions in male patients with bipolar disorder and their healthy spouses

Abstract

Objective: Only a limited number of studies have evaluated sexual functions in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and their spouses. The aim of the present study was to compare the sexual functions of male patients with BD and their healthy spouses with those of healthy couples and to investigate potential factors that predict sexual problems. Methods: Sixty male outpatients with BD in remission and their healthy female spouses were included in the study. All patients were under medication. Randomly selected forty healthy couples were included as the control group. All participants were assessed with sociodemographic data form, Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Marital Adjustment Scale (MAS). Results: Problem rates according to GRISS total, communication, frequency and impotence scores were higher for patients than male controls. Problem rates according to GRISS communication and frequency scores were higher for patients’ spouses than female controls. Logistic regression analyses for males revealed that sexual problems were associated with depressive symptoms and marital adjustment, but were not assoicated with the presence of BD. Analyses for females showed that sexual problems were associated with marital adjustment and age, whereas no association was ound with being spouse of a patient. Conclusions: Treating the subsyndromal depressive symptoms of patients and interventions to increase marital adjustment may improve sexual functions of patients and their spouses. After controlling confounding factors, presence of sexual problem was not associated with having BD for males and being a spouse of a patient for females.