Efficacious psychological treatments for sexual dysfunctions

Efficacious psychological treatments for sexual dysfunctions. Starting from Masters and Johnson's sex therapy (1970), sexual dysfunction has become a usual objective in therapy. Nevertheless, the expanded use and the positive results of sex therapy are not supported up to now by methodologically rob ust studies showing it efficacy and effectiveness. Furthermore, there is no evidence about the differential effects of medical and psychological treat ments for these problems. Reasons for this include several problems and dif ficulties concerning sample selection, measurement and diagnostic, treatmen t and research design. Keeping in mind these restrictions, available eviden ce about efficacy of both psychological and medical treatments for sexual d ysfunction is reviewed. Male and female dysfunctions are separately reviewe d, focusing on those disorders that have received more attention. So that, among males dysfunctions, erectile problems, premature ejaculation and inhi bited orgasm, are considered, while among female ones (less studied in gene ral) hypoactive sexual desire and orgasmic disorders are included. Stemming from the analysis several guidelines for future research on this topic are proposed.