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Sexual dysfunctions of the alcoholic

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Abstract

After reviewing the theories proposed as models for alcoholism, a picture seems to emerge that may serve to incorporate the sexual dysfunctions occuring in chronic alcoholism. So far, neither the clinical anecdotal data, nor the recent research on non-alcoholics conducted in controlled laboratory conditions could explain the persistence of sexual ysfunctions after years of sobriety. The seemingly paradoxical appearance, during periods of alcohol abstinence, of a more severe symptom of sexual malfunction—the total lack of sexual desire—may be conceived as an attempt to compensate a psychodynamic imbalance: as alcoholism is aleviated, the sexual dysfunction is aggravated. Therefore, in order to be effective, sex therapy for the alcoholic, has to address itself at the same time to the intrapersonal dynamics, to the inter-personal system as well as to the actual presenting sexual complaints.

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  1. Irene Gad-Luther M.D., Ph.D.
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Gad-Luther, I. Sexual dysfunctions of the alcoholic. Sex Disabil 3, 273–290 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01207676

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