Is milder psychological stress responsible for more severe erectile dysfunction?

ABSTRACT

China is a sexually conservative country compared with Western countries. To evaluate the psychological characteristics of Chinese erectile dysfunction (ED) patients, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 153 ED outpatients. Patients were interviewed with the Structured Interview on Erectile Dysfunction (SIEDY) for pathogenic quantification. ED was measured by International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). Depression and anxiety were evaluated with 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and 7-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) respectively. Most patients (74.5%) were <40 years old. IIEF-5 were significantly correlated with SIEDY scale 3 (r = .16, p = .040) and GAD-7 (p = .15, p = .033). The SIEDY scale 1 increased with age, but the IIEF-5, SIEDY scale 3, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 decreased with age. A negative correlation was observed between ED and psychological stress, which conflicts with many Western-country studies. Younger patients were characterised by milder ED but more psychological stress, while older patients were characterised by worse ED but less psychological stress. Which may be responsible for the conflicting result. Meanwhile, the much younger age distribution among Chinese ED outpatients may indicate that quite a few older ED patients (≥40 years) in China do not seek outpatient service which should merit more attention.