Sexual dysfunction in depression and anxiety: Conceptualizing sexual dysfunction as part of an internalizing dimension

Sexual dysfunction is often implicated in depression and anxiety disorders, but the current nosology of sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety (i.e., DSM-IV) does not adequately address these relationships. Because recent papers (Krueger, R. F., & Markon, K. E. (2006). Reinterpreting comorbidity: A model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 111-133) have suggested and provided evidence for latent internalizing and externalizing dimensions that help explain high comorbidity between mental disorders, the current paper suggests that sexual dysfunction might conceptually belong to a latent internalizing factor. To address this, evidence is presented for the relationship among disorders of sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm comorbid with depression and anxiety. A review of sexual disorders is also presented along with a critical examination of the way the current DSM is organized with respect to sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety.