Diagnosing Sexual Dysfunctions: How Frequently Are They Assigned in German University Outpatient Clinics for Psychotherapy?,Wie häufig werden Diagnosen aus dem Bereich der sexuellen Funktionsstörungen an deutschen Hochschulambulanzen für Psychotherapie an psychologischen Instituten vergeben?
Introduction Sexual dysfunctions are considered to be common. However, there is a lack of epidemiological data on the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in outpatient psychotherapy. For the first time, a robust estimate is possible based on coordinated data collection at German university outpatient clinics for psychotherapy. Objectives The aim of this study is to present the F52 diagnoses established at German university outpatient clinics for psychotherapy at psychological institutes. Methods 16 university outpatient clinics for adults submitted selected data on the diagnoses of those patients (N=4504; M age=37.87; SD=13.47; Range=15-86; 65.3% female) treated in 2016.In this study, the frequency of diagnoses from ICD chapter F52 was analyzed. Results A total of 32 patients (0.7%) were diagnosed with sexual dysfunction, and in eight cases (0.2%) this was the principle diagnosis. Of the 32 patients, 31 (96.9%) were co-morbid with other disorders, mainly anxiety disorders (34.4%) and affective disorders (53.1%). Within the principle diagnoses, vaginismus not due to a substance or known physiological condition (n=3) was the most frequent reason to seek professional help. The frequency of F52 diagnoses across the 16 outpatient clinics ranged from 0% to 1.2%, and eight of the 16 clinics did not assign F52 diagnoses at all. Conclusion The treatment prevalence of sexual dysfunction appears low compared to that reported in community and in clinical samples. In addition to methodological and study-specific reasons, aspects of psychotherapeutic service provision as well as false negative diagnostic decisions might be responsible for this finding.