Prevalence and clinical features of sexual dysfunction in male with epilepsy: the first southern italy hospital-based study

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and the etiology of sexual dysfunctions (SD) in a group of epileptic outpatients. Sixty Italian men (30 patients and 30 controls), living in Sicily, were enrolled in the study. Our diagnostic investigation included physical and neurological examination, EEG, MRI and Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Scales administration. A "semi-structured" questionnaire and the short form of the Sex relation Evaluation Schedule Assessment Monitoring were administered to the whole sample to evaluate their sexual well-being. There was no correlation between SD and type of epilepsy, EEG abnormalities and different antiepileptic drugs, while a weak correlation was observed between seizure frequency and the main SD. Forty-seven percent of the patients were affected by mild to moderate depression and 73.3% were anxious. Moreover, those patients who had uncontrolled seizures presented alteration in their social and affective area. Our findings showed a low prevalence of SD in epileptic male outpatients, especially concerning hyposexuality, and an important role of the seizure frequency in the multifactorial aetiology of sexual impairment in epilepsy. However, larger and multicenter studies are needed to better define the effects of epilepsy per se and the individual treatments on sexual function.

Sexual function in people with epilepsy: Similarities and differences with the general population

“…[9][10][11][12][13] Two further studies report no significant differences regarding sexual functioning between people with epilepsy and controls. 14,15 We have previously shown a significantly higher prevalence of sexual problems in women with epilepsy than in controls (75% vs 12%), and in men with epilepsy than in controls (63% vs 10%). 11 The large differences found in that study were probably due to selection bias, as the study included patients with severe epilepsy and a slightly different way of assessing sexual problems.…”

Association between epilepsy and risk of sexual dysfunction: A meta-analysis

“…Among them, 18 articles were excluded for failing to provide the control group; 8 articles for insufficient outcome data; 6 articles for not meeting the inclusion criteria; and 5 articles for inappropriate grouping. Finally, 9 observational studies [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] met the pre-defined eligibility criteria and were included in quantitative analysis. Fig.…”

“…Three studies referred to cross-sectional designed [21,23,25], five to case-control designed [18][19][20]22,26], and one study to cohort designed [24]. There were 2 publications conducted in Brazil [18,21] and United States [19,20], respectively, as well as 1 publication conducted in Italy [22], India [23], Norway [24], China [25], and Nigeria, respectively [26]. These included studies have enrolled a total of 1029 female participants and 527 male participants, of whom 418 women and 181 men were PWE, respectively.…”

“…Four studies reported the disease duration of epilepsy [18,19,23,25], ranging from 4 to 15.5 years. Six studies [19][20][21][22][23]25] mentioned the specific AEDs usage, including carbamazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, valproate, gabapentin, lamotrigine, clobazam, oxcarbazepine, levetiracetam, and topiramate, etc. The mean age of the female subjects and male subjects among studies ranged from 29.6 to 43.6 years and 30.5-43.6 years, respectively.…”

“…The outcomes of the methodological quality of the 3 cross-sectional studies were shown in Supplementary Table 2, of which 2 studies [21,23] were judged as moderate quality and the remaining 1 study [25] was judged as high quality. In the case-control and cohort studies, 5 studies [18][19][20]24,26] were moderate quality and 1 [22] study was high quality (Supplementary Table 3).…”