Abstract
Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (distressing, long-lasting impairments in sexual desire and/or arousal) is common in women, but few have access to efficacious psychotherapies, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based therapy (MBT). eSense, an online program meant to maximize treatment access, has been shown to be a feasible, satisfactory, and potentially efficacious intervention. However, subpopulations such as sexual assault survivors may find the program less usable or efficacious. The current study compared women with and without a history of sexual assault (SA) regarding their ability to use and benefit from eSense. Forty-four women (22 with a history of SA; M age = 34.20 years) used eSense (CBT or MBT) and completed validated self-report scales of sexual function, sexual distress, treatment satisfaction, and homework compliance. A history of SA did not predict differences in attrition or changes in clinical outcomes. Exploratory analyses suggested that women with a history of SA reported slightly higher difficulty completing homework assignments, but also slightly higher treatment satisfaction. These preliminary results suggest that eSense may be usable and helpful for women with a history of SA. We discuss ways to maximize the acceptability and efficacy of online programs for women with a history of SA.
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Notes
One participant completed the eight modules of eSense, but did not complete post-treatment measures. Inclusion or exclusion of this participant did not meaningfully change the pattern of results.
We chose to include these analyses focusing on women with a history of adult SA in particular because including women who experienced childhood sexual abuse as well adds additional error variance to analyses (given the likely important differences in experiences from women with unwanted sexual contact as an adult). As such, examining women with only adult SA may provide a more statistical powerful method of testing effects of interest.
We also re-ran this set of analyses carrying forward pre-treatment values for participants who had not provided post-treatment values (i.e., intent-to-treat analyses). We found the same pattern of results using this method.
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Stephenson, K.R., Latimer, S.R.E., Zippan, N.L. et al. History of Sexual Assault as a Predictor of Response to a Self-Guided Online Program for Sexual Desire and Arousal Difficulties in Women. Arch Sex Behav 52, 3379–3391 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02685-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02685-5