Risk factors for premature ejaculation: The intrapsychic risk factor

Abstract

Intrapsychic factors encompass those elements comprising the person's psychological past and present that ultimately underlie his attitudes, beliefs, values, expectations, attributions, cognitions, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. These processes may be affected by inherent dispositions having a biological/genetic basis, developmental-learning experiences which vary across individual men, or sociocultural environments. The evidence supporting various cognitive, emotional, personality, and other intrapsychic distinctions in men with PE is reviewed, with differences with non-PE men being subtle though not without possible significance. Furthermore, the effectiveness of therapeutic strategies designed to counter negative psychological processes argues in favor of the idea that such factors may contribute to or intensify functional impairment in men with PE.