The debate on medicalization of sexology 2001–2010: a literature study on psychological treatment of sexual problems

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study is to describe the position of psychological treatment in an era where optimism surrounding pharmacological treatment has raised questions as to whether psychology should play a role in sexology at all. An investigation on the status of psychological treatment after the introduction of the PDE-5 inhibitors seemed due.A systematic qualitative literature review on psychological treatment of sexual dysfunction during the period of 2001–2010 was completed in 2012.A total of 261 articles were found, and organized according to their source, content, genre and year of publication. Thematic analysis was performed on selected groups of articles.Twenty-eight articles focused on medicalization of sexology. Thematic analysis revealed discussions regarding the following themes:This article will discuss these themes based on citations from the 28 articles. The main conclusions are that the medical model may be understood as a continuum, ranging from purely pharmacological treatment, ...