SUMMARY :
The aim of this research was to study the role of an individual’s recent
experience in the onset of erection disorders. Our hypothesis was that the subjects
were more vulnerable to anxiety causing difficulties for them in adapting to
outside events.
Our sample was a group of 26 patients suffering from secondary erection disorders
and a group of 20 control subjects. We used the Life-Events Questionnaire developed
by F. Amiel-Lebigre (1986) to make a list of events experienced during the five
years prior to the onset of erection disorders for the patients, and during
the five years prior to the date at which the questionnaire was filled in for
the control subjects. The subjects were all asked to give a score between 0
and 100 to each event according to its emotional impact on them. We also measured
the subjects’ anxiety scores using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory or
STAI (Spielberger, 1983). Our hypothesis was to use the State-Trait score to
reflect long-standing anxiety specific to each subject.
The results show that there had been a much greater number of life events during
the year prior to the onset of erection disorders for the patients than for
the control subjects. A detailed analysis of this peak of events revealed that
the most common events were those of an emotional nature and those involving
a loss, or bereavement. We also noted that the patients often assigned a high
emotional impact score to this type of event.
In addition, the results did not show any higher state-anxiety and/or trait-anxiety
scores for patients than for control subjects.