Assessment of problematic sexual interests with the penile plethysmograph: an overview of assessment laboratories.

Phallometric testing, or penile plethysmography (PPG), is an objective measure of sexual arousal for males. While extensive research on the reliability and validity of PPG has promoted its reputation as the "gold standard" of objective measurement of sexual arousal, there is a lack of standardization of stimulus sets and interpretation of results between sites. This article describes the laboratory protocol employed for PPG at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre's Sexual Behaviours Clinic (SBC) in Ottawa, Ontario, as well as those used by the Sexual Behaviors Clinic and Lab (SBCL) in the Community and Public Safety Psychiatry Division (CPSPD) of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, South Carolina. The need for standardization in both testing protocol and stimuli use across sites are highlighted.

[Review of symptoms and therapy of paraphylias]. / A parafíliák tünettanák és terápiajának áttekintése.

The authors review the historical main milestones in the legislative aspects of sexual deviances, from ancient times through age of enlightenment to present times, including the factors affecting the Hungarian public attitudes towards it. The evolution of nomenclature of sexual orientation disorders is also evaluated thoroughly, detailing the DSM-IV-TR classification and the attempts and difficulties to further develop the present classification system. The authors also review the difficulties of epidemiological studies and sum up the pioneer work of Alfred Kinsey. The etiology of paraphylias is summed up based on biological, psychodynamic and learning theory approaches. Finally, the pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions are evaluated considering also comorbidity, outer control and forensic psychiatric aspects.

The Kleine-Levine syndrome--a variant?

A case of Kleine-Levin syndrome in an older man is described, with a review of the literature. An important point is emphasized in our case in which the patient reacted unfavorably to Ritalin, becoming sexually aroused, although his hypersomnia improved. A possibly different mechanism in hypersomnia and hypersexuality is speculated.

Effeminacy. II. Variation with social context.

In Part II, effeminacy in an in vivo social situation was studied and the Effeminacy Scale described in Part I was tested. Nineteen subjects were studied and videotaped while participating in four encounter groups, of which two were homosexual and two heterosexual. There were large situational variations in expressivity of effeminacy during group meetings. High-frequency levels of effeminate responses were observed to parallel high levels of anxiety or anger. At other times, effeminate responses were observed which seemed to subserve sexual signaling functions or which seemed related to narcissistic retreat (self-cuddling) or castration anxiety (e.g., cupping the genitals). Interrater reliability with the Effeminacy Scale for two nonprofessional raters viewing the same videotaped material from the group was 0.93 (Pearson r).