It has been recently demonstrated that mindfulness-based intervention may be particularly suitable for addressing sexual difficulties in women. Although the FiveFacet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is currently one of the most widely used scales to assess mindfulness, no adaptation and validation of the FFMQ to measure female sexual functioning has been published. The main aim of this study was to develop and validate a sexual version of the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-S) to specifically measure mindfulness in the context of sexual encounters. A total of 251 healthy, French-speaking female volunteers were administered the FFMQ-S, the original FFMQ, and the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS-R). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the FFMQ-S exhibits a five-factor model, as implied by the original FFMQ. Good scale reliability was observed. The FFMQ-S showed significant correlations with the FSDS-R and the usual FFMQ. Scores on the FFMQ-S correlated significa... It has been recently demonstrated that mindfulness-based intervention may be particularly suitable for addressing sexual difficulties in women. Although the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) is currently one of the most widely used scales to assess mindfulness, no adaptation and validation of the FFMQ to measure female sexual functioning has been published. The main aim of this study was to develop and validate a sexual version of the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ-S) to specifically measure mindfulness in the context of sexual encounters. A total of 251 healthy, French-speaking female volunteers were administered the FFMQ-S, the original FFMQ, and the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS-R). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the FFMQ-S exhibits a five-factor model, as implied by the original FFMQ. Good scale reliability was observed. The FFMQ-S showed significant correlations with the FSDS-R and the usual FFMQ. Scores on the FFMQ-S correlated significantly more negatively with the total FSDS-R score than with the total score of the original version of the FFMQ. These findings clearly support the relevance of developing a version of the FFMQ tailored to sexual functioning.

The developmental expression patterns of the nuclear orphan receptors COUP-TFs (chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter-transcription factors) have been correlated to neurogenesis in several animal species. Nevertheless, the role of COUP-TFs in neurogenesis remains unknown. We have studied the functional involvement of COUP-TFI in retinoic acid (RA)-induced neuronal differentiation of P19 embryonal carcinoma cells through two complementary approaches: 1) deregulated expression of COUP-TFI, and 2) inactivation of endogenous COUP-TFs by means of a dominant-negative COUP-TFI mutant. Low levels of wild-type (wt)COUP-TFI transgene expression did not inhibit neural cell fate and primarily enhanced neuron outgrowth from RA-treated P19 aggregates. In contrast, high COUP-TFI expression impeded the neuronal differentiation of P19 cells induced with RA, resulting in cell cultures lacking neurons. This morphological effect was correlated to an elevated level of E-cadherin mRNA. The dominant-negative COUP-TFI mutant induced cell packing after RA treatment and inhibited neurite extension and neuron outgrowth from aggregates. A RGD peptide interference assay indicated that endogenous COUP-TFs could favor migration of neurons through an integrin-dependent mechanism. Accordingly, vitronectin mRNA levels were shown to be up-regulated by COUP-TFI by RT-PCR analysis, and COUP-TFI stimulated the mouse vitronectin promoter activity in transient transfection assays. Taken together, these data indicate that COUP-TFI is not simply a global repressor of retinoid functions, but shows a high selectivity for regulating genes involved in cellular adhesion and migration processes that are particularly important for neuronal differentiation.

No abstract

No abstract

Introduction This study examines the effectiveness of integrating mindfulness-based techniques within therapy for women suffering to achieve orgasm. Although widely applied in psychotherapy, this approach has only recently been introduced in the treatment of female sexual dysfunction. Aim To compare the effectiveness of a video-based self-administered treatment, rooted within the cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) framework, with a video-based self-administered mindfulness treatment applying cognitive behavioral sexual therapy (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy), the latter of which was specifically created to increase women's ability to achieve orgasm. Methods A convenience sample of 65 women suffering from difficulties to achieve orgasm, aged 18 to 58 years (mean = 32.66, standard deviation = 9.48), were randomly allocated using a randomization procedure to either a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (N = 35) or CBT (N = 30) group. Each participant completed questionnaires before and after the start of treatment and 2 months after its completion. Main Outcome Measure We applied repeated-measure general linear models to compare the 2 groups (ie, between participant factor) on each dependent variable across time (ie, the within-participant factor). Compare mean analyses for paired samples were only conducted when the interaction effect between condition and time was significant (ie, P <.05). Results Statistical analyses show that women in both groups presented increased sexual functioning (P = .001) and decreased sexual distress (P < .001), as well as improved desire, arousal, orgasm, and sexual satisfaction (P < .05) after their respective treatments. Contrary to our hypothesis, significant reductions in sexual pain were only observed in CBT participants. Clinical Implications To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply a randomized allocation procedure to evaluate the effectiveness of a video-based mindfulness intervention for women struggling to achieve orgasm. These results should guide clinicians' decisions with respect to evaluating the relevance and the real added value of proposing mindfulness exercises to their patients with such difficulties. Conclusion When women suffering from difficulties to achieve orgasm are randomly assigned to a mindfulness group or an active control, improvements in sexual functioning and reductions in sexual distress can be observed after both treatments.