Psychiatric Comorbidities and Sexual Health

Abstract

Purpose of Review: With a growing focus on mental health, it is imperative that healthcare providers seek to understand how psychiatric comorbidities affect sexual health. The purpose of this review is to identify and fill knowledge gaps in our understanding of the relationship between psychiatric comorbidities, their treatments, and sexual health, expanding on management approaches that are geared toward optimizing patient outcomes. Recent Findings: Following increased interest in sexual medicine and growing research on sexuality, we have deepened our understanding of sexual health. Affective disorders and their treatments are linked to sexual dysfunction, which manifest differently in men and women as well as in individuals with concurrent psychiatric disorders. Merging current knowledge on sexual health with neuroscientific findings on affective disorders may provide a better approach to assessing and treating specific sexual complaints. Summary: Failure to investigate a patient’s psychiatric background negatively influences treatment goals. Clinicians who seek to improve overall patient health must endeavor to consider patient characteristics such as gender differences and concurrent comorbid psychiatric conditions with regard to effectiveness of treatment and side effect profiles. A better understanding of sexual function and psychiatric disorders in terms of neuroimaging and neurobiology may assist healthcare providers in choosing treatment options that are best suited to specific patient concerns.