Evaluating an Integrated Approach to Improve the Couple Sexual Desire Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study
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Abstract
Background: Treating and changing patterns of low sexual desire and dysfunctions can be done in various ways. However, it is important to recognize the value of integrated approaches when it comes to addressing these issues. To this end, we conducted a randomized clinical trial study to compare the effectiveness of an integrated approach with that of Masters-Johnson Sex Therapy (MJST) for treating hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in Iranian couples from Mar 2016 to May 2018.
Methods: We conducted a clinical trial on 24 couples who were experiencing HSDD. The couples were randomly divided into two groups. The intervention group was given an integrative approach, while the control group received MJST for ten sessions. We collected data using standard questionnaires before, immediately after, and eight weeks after the intervention.
Results: There was no significant difference in sexual desire and function among men between the MJST and integrative approach groups. However, women in the integrative approach group showed more improvement in sexual desire and dysfunction compared to those in the MJST group. The improvement in sexual function for women and sexual desire for both men and women were maintained at the eight-week follow-up in the integrative approach.
Conclusion: Our study found that using an integrative approach effectively treated HSDD in couples.
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2. Gambescia N, Weeks GR (2019). Systemic treatment of sexual interest/arousal problems in women. In: Systemic sex ther-apy. Ed(s): Routledge, 107-129.
3. Schwartz MF, Southern S (2018). An integra-tive model for treatment of sexual de-sire disorders: An update of the masters and Johnson institute approach. The Family Journal, 26 (2):223-237.
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5. Parish SJ, Hahn SR (2016). Hypoactive Sex-ual Desire Disorder: A Review of Epi-demiology, Biopsychology, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Sex Med Rev, 4 (2):103-120.
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10. Shahrahmani N, Mollazadeh S, Taghipour A, et al (2023). The Impact of Emotion-focused Counseling on Marital Issues of Infertile Couples: A Systematic Review. Journal of Midwifery & Reproductive Health, 11(4):3884-3895.
11. Ahmadnia E, Haseli A, Karamat A (2017). Therapeutic Interventions Conducted on Improving Women’s Sexual Satisfac-tion and Function during Reproductive Ages in Iran: A Systematic Review. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci, 27 (153):146-162.
12. Johnson SM (2019). The practice of emo-tionally focused couple therapy: Creat-ing connection (3rd ed). Routledge, 218-237.
13. Şenol A, Gürbüz F, Dost MT (2023). Emo-tion-Focused Couple Therapy: A Review of Theory and Practice. Psikiyatride Gün-cel Yaklaşımlar, 15 (1):146-160.
14. Stephenson K R, Sullivan K, Christensen A. (2016) Couple Therapy, Editor(s): How-ard S. Friedman, Encyclopedia of Men-tal Health (Second Edition), Academic Press, 368-376.
15. Baucom KJ, Baucom BR, Christensen A (2015). Changes in dyadic communica-tion during and after integrative and traditional behavioral couple therapy. Behav Res Ther, 65:18-28.
16. Johnson S, Zuccarini D (2010). Integrating sex and attachment in emotionally fo-cused couple therapy. J Marital Fam Ther, 36 (4):431-445.
17. Creswell, John W & Plano Clark, Vicki L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Los Angeles, Cali.: SAGE Publications,43.
18. Soleimani AA, Najafi M, Ahmadi K, et al (2015). The Effectiveness of Emotional-ly Focused Couples Therapy on Sexual Satisfaction and Marital Adjustment of Infertile Couples with Marital Conflicts. Int J Fertil Steril, 9 (3):393-402.
19. Snyder DK, Balderrama-Durbin C (2012). Integrative Approaches to Couple Ther-apy: Implications for Clinical Practice and Research. Behav Ther, 43 (1):13-24.
20. Samadi P, Maasoumi R, Salehi M, et al (2019). Married Women’s and Men’s Ex-periences Regarding the Concept of Sexual Desire: A Qualitative Research. Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci, 13 (1): e66324.
21. Besharat MA, Ranjbar Kelagari E (2013). Development and validation of sexual knowledge and attitude scale. Contempo-rary Psychology, 8 (1):21-32.
22. Hurlbert DF (2011). Hurlbert index of sexu-al desire. In: Handbook of sexuality-related measures. Ed(s): Routledge, Tay-lor & Francis Group, New York, 191-192.
23. Yousefi N, Farsani K, Shakiba A, et al (2014). Halbert Index of Sexual Desire (HISD) Questionnaire Validation. Clini-cal Psychology & Personality (Daneshvar Raf-tar), 20 (9):107-118.
24. Rosen CB J Heiman S Leiblum C. et al (2000). The Female Sexual Function In-dex (FSFI): a multidimensional self-report instrument for the assessment of female sexual function. J Sex Marital Ther, 26 (2):191-208.
25. Rosen RC, Riley A, Wagner G, et al (1997). The international index of erectile func-tion (IIEF): a multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction. Urol-ogy, 49 (6):822-830.
26. Ramezani MA, Ahmadi K, Besharat M, et al (2018). Efficacy of metacognitive thera-py for hypoactive sexual desire disorder among Iranian couples. Psychother Res, 28 (6):902-908.
27. Potki R, Ziaei T, Faramarzi M, et al (2017). Bio-psycho-social factors affecting sex-ual self-concept: A systematic review. Electron Physician, 9 (9):5172-5178.
28. Damjanović A, Duisin D, Barisić J (2013). The evolution of the female sexual re-sponse concept: treatment implications. Srp Arh Celok Lek, 141 (3-4):268-74.
29. Asadpour E, Veisi S (2017). The Effective-ness of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy on Sexual Self-Esteem and Sex-ual Function in Women with Multiple Sclerosis. J Arak Uni Med Sci, 20 (7):1-12.
2. Gambescia N, Weeks GR (2019). Systemic treatment of sexual interest/arousal problems in women. In: Systemic sex ther-apy. Ed(s): Routledge, 107-129.
3. Schwartz MF, Southern S (2018). An integra-tive model for treatment of sexual de-sire disorders: An update of the masters and Johnson institute approach. The Family Journal, 26 (2):223-237.
4. Ferreira LC, Fraenkel P, Narciso I, Novo R (2015). Is committed desire intentional? A qualitative exploration of sexual desire and differentiation of self in couples. Fam Process, 54 (2):308-326.
5. Parish SJ, Hahn SR (2016). Hypoactive Sex-ual Desire Disorder: A Review of Epi-demiology, Biopsychology, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Sex Med Rev, 4 (2):103-120.
6. Hall K (2019). Male hypoactive sexual de-sire disorder. In: Systemic sex therapy. Ed(s), 3rd Edition: Routledge, 19.
7. Ramezani MA, Ahmadi K, Ghaem-maghami A, et al (2015). Epidemiology of sexual dysfunction in Iran: a system-atic review and meta-analysis. Int J Prev Med, 6:43.
8. Pereira VM, Arias-Carrión O, Machado S, et al (2013). Sex therapy for female sexu-al dysfunction. Int Arch Med, 6 (1):37.
9. Jangi S, Nourizadeh R (2023). The effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy and sexual health education on sexual assertiveness of newly married women. BMC Psychia-try, 23 (1):201.
10. Shahrahmani N, Mollazadeh S, Taghipour A, et al (2023). The Impact of Emotion-focused Counseling on Marital Issues of Infertile Couples: A Systematic Review. Journal of Midwifery & Reproductive Health, 11(4):3884-3895.
11. Ahmadnia E, Haseli A, Karamat A (2017). Therapeutic Interventions Conducted on Improving Women’s Sexual Satisfac-tion and Function during Reproductive Ages in Iran: A Systematic Review. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci, 27 (153):146-162.
12. Johnson SM (2019). The practice of emo-tionally focused couple therapy: Creat-ing connection (3rd ed). Routledge, 218-237.
13. Şenol A, Gürbüz F, Dost MT (2023). Emo-tion-Focused Couple Therapy: A Review of Theory and Practice. Psikiyatride Gün-cel Yaklaşımlar, 15 (1):146-160.
14. Stephenson K R, Sullivan K, Christensen A. (2016) Couple Therapy, Editor(s): How-ard S. Friedman, Encyclopedia of Men-tal Health (Second Edition), Academic Press, 368-376.
15. Baucom KJ, Baucom BR, Christensen A (2015). Changes in dyadic communica-tion during and after integrative and traditional behavioral couple therapy. Behav Res Ther, 65:18-28.
16. Johnson S, Zuccarini D (2010). Integrating sex and attachment in emotionally fo-cused couple therapy. J Marital Fam Ther, 36 (4):431-445.
17. Creswell, John W & Plano Clark, Vicki L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Los Angeles, Cali.: SAGE Publications,43.
18. Soleimani AA, Najafi M, Ahmadi K, et al (2015). The Effectiveness of Emotional-ly Focused Couples Therapy on Sexual Satisfaction and Marital Adjustment of Infertile Couples with Marital Conflicts. Int J Fertil Steril, 9 (3):393-402.
19. Snyder DK, Balderrama-Durbin C (2012). Integrative Approaches to Couple Ther-apy: Implications for Clinical Practice and Research. Behav Ther, 43 (1):13-24.
20. Samadi P, Maasoumi R, Salehi M, et al (2019). Married Women’s and Men’s Ex-periences Regarding the Concept of Sexual Desire: A Qualitative Research. Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci, 13 (1): e66324.
21. Besharat MA, Ranjbar Kelagari E (2013). Development and validation of sexual knowledge and attitude scale. Contempo-rary Psychology, 8 (1):21-32.
22. Hurlbert DF (2011). Hurlbert index of sexu-al desire. In: Handbook of sexuality-related measures. Ed(s): Routledge, Tay-lor & Francis Group, New York, 191-192.
23. Yousefi N, Farsani K, Shakiba A, et al (2014). Halbert Index of Sexual Desire (HISD) Questionnaire Validation. Clini-cal Psychology & Personality (Daneshvar Raf-tar), 20 (9):107-118.
24. Rosen CB J Heiman S Leiblum C. et al (2000). The Female Sexual Function In-dex (FSFI): a multidimensional self-report instrument for the assessment of female sexual function. J Sex Marital Ther, 26 (2):191-208.
25. Rosen RC, Riley A, Wagner G, et al (1997). The international index of erectile func-tion (IIEF): a multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction. Urol-ogy, 49 (6):822-830.
26. Ramezani MA, Ahmadi K, Besharat M, et al (2018). Efficacy of metacognitive thera-py for hypoactive sexual desire disorder among Iranian couples. Psychother Res, 28 (6):902-908.
27. Potki R, Ziaei T, Faramarzi M, et al (2017). Bio-psycho-social factors affecting sex-ual self-concept: A systematic review. Electron Physician, 9 (9):5172-5178.
28. Damjanović A, Duisin D, Barisić J (2013). The evolution of the female sexual re-sponse concept: treatment implications. Srp Arh Celok Lek, 141 (3-4):268-74.
29. Asadpour E, Veisi S (2017). The Effective-ness of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy on Sexual Self-Esteem and Sex-ual Function in Women with Multiple Sclerosis. J Arak Uni Med Sci, 20 (7):1-12.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 53 No 6 (2024) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v53i6.15919 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Hypoactive sexual desire disorder Integrated approach Clinical trial | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Samadi P, Alipour Z, Maasoumi R. Evaluating an Integrated Approach to Improve the Couple Sexual Desire Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study. Iran J Public Health. 2024;53(6):1457-1466.
