Sexual Function in Men with Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury has been linked with higher incidence of sexual problems. As there have been few published reports regarding sexual functioning in men with traumatic brain injury in Latin America, this study sought to compare sexual measures in men with traumatic brain injury with healthy controls. The hypotheses that males with TBI would experience significantly lower indices of sexual functioning compared to unaffected individuals and that increased age and injury severity would predict lower sexual functioning among participants with TBI were tested. Seventy-one Spanish-speaking Colombian men with a history of moderate to severe TBI who were at least 6 months post-injury, and 71 healthy controls participated by completing the Sexual Desire Inventory, International Index of Erectile Function, Index of Premature Ejaculation, Sexual Quality of Life Questionnaire, Index of Sexual Satisfaction. SPSS 22 was used to analyze the results. When compared to matched controls, males with TBI had significantly lower overall and dyadic sexual desire, sexual satisfaction and sexual quality of life. Erectile functioning, ejaculation control, satisfaction with ejaculation control were reported to by lower in the TBI group than in the control group. Almost 44% of participants with TBI had moderate to severe erectile dysfunction, whereas nearly 10% of the control group had the same.