SUMMARY :
Objective: to illustrate the range of sexual problems observed during four years
of assessments in a Women’s Clinic for Schizophrenia.
Method: chart review and tabulation of 350 referrals to a specialized comprehensive
treatment service for women with schizophrenia.
Results: not having a partner was the most pervasive sex-related complaint found.
Loss of libido and being the victim of rape tied for second place. Other common
complaints were sexual infatuation with an unattainable, sometimes imaginary
male, spontaneous arousal and orgasm, visual and tactile hallucinations of sexual
acts, auditory hallucinations of sexual insults, pseudocyesis, denial of pregnancy
and childbirth, delusion of childbirth, sexual victimization and sexual "addiction".
Conclusions: Women with schizophrenia, often after years of illness and treatment,
retain their interest in sex and in sexual aspects of interpersonal relating.
These interests enrich their lives but occasionally prove problematic.