psychosexual disorders
Last reviewed 01/2018
Sexual problems can be grouped into two main categories:
- sexual dysfunction - when physiologically normal function fails eg inability to respond to erotic stimulation with arousal, erection or orgasm, or when interest in sex is diminished or absent
- sexual deviance - when a sexual behaviour violates the laws, or social norms of a social group e.g. paedophilia
Neither sexual dysfunction nor deviance indicates illness or pathology, though in a small proportion of cases this may be so, for example loss of sexual response with diabetes mellitus, or exhibitionism with dementia.