[Psychological treatment of female sexual dysfunction: a critical review of the literature].

AIM

Impairment of sexual functioning may have a significant impact on the person's quality of life. Despite the high prevalence of female sexual dysfunctions, it is still not clear what are the effective treatments for these disorders. The aim of this critical review is to provide an update on the efficacy of psychological treatments for female sexual dysfunctions.

METHOD

A thorough literature search was performed, using electronic database (PubMed and PsychINFO) and manual searches, selecting articles in English and Italian language published in peer-reviewed journals. Only randomized controlled trials were included.

RESULTS

Most of the studies investigated the efficacy of sex therapy using techniques developed by Masters and Johnson and behavioral/ cognitive-behavioral treatment programs. Both approaches were effective for dyspareunia and vaginismus. Cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness based therapy showed significant improvement in hypoactive sexual desire but more research is needed for this disorder. Studies on the efficacy of treatment for orgasmic disorder are scarce and dated and they investigated mainly behavioral programs.

CONCLUSION

The low methodological quality of many studies and the paucity of data for the most prevalent female dysfunctions calls for further research on psychological interventions for these disorders, using randomized, controlled designs and larger samples.