DISENTANGLING FEMALE SEXUAL DYSFUNCTIONS IN THE DSM-5

This paper presents a review of the changes between DSM-IV-TR and the recently published DSM-5 regarding sexual dysfunctions in women. The empirical evidences provided by the Members of the DSM-5 Workgroup on sexual dysfunctions are discussed. The aim is to facilitate the use of the Manual by the sanitary professionals and clinicians, and also to bring recent results from sexual research. For the first time, there is a distinction between sexual dysfunctions that only apply to women. This modification acknowledges that several aspects of sexual response are different by sex. In addition, some of the previous diagnostic categories are collapsed in a common category. The efforts to provide empirical evidences for the diagnostic criteria of DSM-5 are emphasized.