Most men who seek treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) have one or more psychiatric disorders, suggests a small study conducted in Greece.

“The current study demonstrates that psychiatric morbidity is highly prevalent in patients with ED,” conclude study investigators.

The study, which is reported in The Journal of Urology, featured 103 men with ED who underwent a battery of tests for the presence of psychiatric illness.

The men ranged in age from 20 to 76 years and the majority had either moderate or severe ED, lead author Dr. Dimitrios Mallis and colleagues, from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, note.

Overall, roughly 63 percent of the men had a psychiatric condition, including 25 percent with a depressive disorder, close to 12 percent with an anxiety disorder, 7 percent with anxiety plus depression, 6 percent with a personality disorder, 4 percent with a psychotic disorder, and 10 percent with “other disorders.”

Forty-one of the 65 patients with a current psychiatric problem reported a history of mental illness, whereas the remaining 24 were diagnosed for the first time when they sought treatment for ED.

The duration and severity of ED had no bearing on the likelihood of psychiatric morbidity or on the severity of depressive symptoms, the authors note. By contrast, men who discussed their ED with a partner had less severe depressive symptoms than men without a partner.

Based on their results, the researchers advise that doctors take a psychosocial history in all men seeking treatment for ED.

SOURCE: Journal of Urology, November 2005.