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Objective: Mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs are known to have adverse effects on sexual function. However, patients often refrain from speaking about sexual complaints that may be the cause of dose reduction and discontinuation of the drug without medical supervision. In this study we aimed to evaluate sexual functions of patients with bipolar disorder in remission period, considering prolactin levels and drug medications
Methods: We recruited 36 patients with bipolar disorder in remission according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Prolactin and mood stabilizer levels were measured in all patients. Hamilton Depression Scale, Young Mania Rating Scale were used to assess if the patients within the study were in remissions and The Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS) was used to assess sexual dysfunction.
Results: 55.6% of patients were male (n: 16) and 44.4% was female (n:20). The mean age of patients was 32.84±12.68. Prolactin levels were 23.34±4.25 and 24.46±5.52 respectively for females and males. Patients taking mood stabilizer (MS) and mood stabilizer plus antipsychotic (AP) treatment had different prolactin levels (15.17± in MS treatment group and 25.64±3.91 in MS+AP treatment group, p=0.244). Total GRISS scores were not different for MS and MS+AP treatment groups. We did not find an association between Total GRISS scores and prolactin levels. (Total GRISS scores: 79.16±3.13 in MS taking group and 73.96±2.93 in MS+AP treatment group, p=0,244) As this is a preliminary study, the inşuence of sample size and difference on results was not statistically meaningful.
Conclusion: In our sample, patients with bipolar disorder in remission have moderate sexual dysfunction. Our results suggest that prolactin levels were not sufficient to demonstrate the sexual dysfunction. To enhance patient compliance it is necessary to focus more on sexual symptoms of patients receiving MS and AP treatment and to explore sexual dysfunction in detail.