Each subject completed a computer-scored Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at the time of the study. Two psychologists who had no knowledge of the subjects’ sexual function or severity of lung disease classified the results according to personality patterns and ranked subjects by overall degree of psychopathology.
Statistical analysis of correlation coefficients and significance was done by the least squares fit method and Duncan’s multiple range test.
The status of each subject’s sexual function was followed for 12 to 18 months after completion of the protocol.
Subjective Sexual Function
Sexual function histones revealed that seven subjects had ceased sexual activity from three months to nine years before the study, while the remaining 13 continued to engage in coitus with a frequency of 16 percent of the premorbid level (Fig 2). For the entire group, the mean frequency of interest in engaging in sexual intercourse was 25 percent of premorbid levels, and for those still sexually active it was 40 percent. The average time between the onset of severe exertional dyspnea and the time of study was five years (db 3.4 years SD). Five subjects noted disappearance of spontaneous morning erections since the onset of pulmonary symptoms, while the remainder noted either about the same number or fewer than the premorbid level.
Of the seven subjects who had ceased sexual activity, six did so because of erectile impotence and one because of severe dyspnea (FEVi = 0.55 L), although he still had occasional firm erections. Ten of the 14 subjects who remained capable of having erections reported variable decreases in firmness and reductions in duration ranging up to 75 percent. Three of these had frequent loss of erections after intromission but prior to climax. Only four subjects experienced little or no change in duration or firmness of erections Viagra Australia.
Objective Erectile Function
Nocturnal tumescence monitoring identified six subjects who failed to attain an average of one full erection per night. Five of these had a history of gradual progression of erectile impotence coinciding with clinical worsening of their lung disease.