Sexual Behavior in Women with Bipolar Disorder

INTRODUCTION: There is a lack of studies regarding sexuality and sexual behavior \r\nin women with bipolar disorder. The aim of this study is to investigate sexual\r\nbehavior in women affected by bipolar disorder in order to stimulate interest and\r\ndebate in this area of care. METHODS: Sixty women (30 BD I and 30 BD II) consent \r\nto participate in the study and were included in the sample. Moreover, sixty\r\nfemale healthy subjects without histories of psychiatric disorders were recruited\r\nas normal controls. Patients and healthy subjects were given the Sexual Interest \r\nand Sexual Performance Questionnaire, a questionnaire devised to explore various \r\naspects of sexual behavior. RESULTS: The results of the present study suggest an \r\nincrease of sexual interest in patients with BD I as compared both with BD II\r\npatients and healthy controls. In women with BD I such increase of interest was\r\ndetected on some items of section I of the Sexual Interest and Sexual Performance\r\nQuestionnaire, in particular "Actual Value of Sexuality" and "Implicit Sexual\r\nInterest", which implicitly explore sexual interest without overtly focusing upon\r\nsexual problems. Moreover, we observed a higher desired frequency of intercourse \r\nin women with BD I than BD II and a higher occurrence of repeated sexual\r\nintercourse in women with BD I than BD II. CONCLUSIONS: The main finding of the\r\npresent study was an increase of sexual interest in BD I as compared with BD II\r\nfemale patients and normal controls. This result was detected when sexual\r\ninterest was explored implicitly. Our study is limited by the small size of our\r\nsubject groups. Further investigations on larger subject samples are needed to\r\nbetter clarify particular aspects of sexual behavior of BD patients.\r\n\r\n\r\nPMID: 21130498 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]