Schizophrenia and Sexual Functioning

To address the scarcity of literature on the sexual functioning of schizophrenic patients, two therapists interviewed 20 schizophrenic patients in a community mental health center's inpatient unit. In a context designed to make the patients feel safe and to encourage rapport, patients were asked about sexual dysfunctions, sexual norms, relationship patterns, and drug-related sexual side-effects. The therapists' impressions were that the data obtained were as reliable as similar information obtained from patients presenting to a sexual dysfunction clinic, that the incidence of sexual dysfunction among these schizophrenic patients was no different from that among the general population, and that the manifest sexual relationship problems were due to lack of social skills and deterioration of social functioning, rather than to a primary, structural impairment specific to schizophrenia.