Psychiatric diagnosis and psychological symptoms in impotence.

A sample of 137 males who presented with a principal complaint of impotence were assessed regarding manifest psychopathology through DSM-III psychiatric diagnosis and the SCL-90-R, a self-report symptom inventory. Contrasts in self-reported symptoms among dysfunctional groups assigned different DSM-III diagnoses proved to be very significant, as were contrasts with patients free of current psychiatric diagnoses. When the sample was separated into the three groups of organic etiology, psychogenic etiology with psychiatric diagnosis, and psychogenic etiology without psychiatric diagnosis, few significant differences in group profiles were uncovered. Findings of the study lend strong support to the notion that males with erectile sexual dysfunction reveal disproportionate levels of psychological symptoms and psychopathology. The results failed to confirm the premise that biogenic versus psychogenic etiologies in impotence can be effectively identified solely on the basis of the psychological symptom picture.