A new study presented to the Albatross National Addiction Congress shows that patients with HIV are much more likely to suffer from a sex addiction than the general population. While the research cohort is small, its results highlight a population that has so far been poorly analyzed.
The men carrying the HIV are much more likely to suffer from a sex addiction than uninfected people, according to a new study, proposed and led by Marie Rouvrais, addictology nurse at Beaujon hospital and member of the COREVIH Île-de-France office North.
22% of the cohort
“When patients are told that they are HIV positive, there are generally three types of reaction: withdrawal from sex, the onset of sexual dysfunction or the development of hypersexuality”, explains the doctor. Stéphane Darbeda, psychiatrist and addictologist at Bichat hospital in Paris, during the presentation of the study at the National Congress of Addictology the Albatross.
With her team, Marie Rouvrais interviewed 89 patients. On average, they were 50 years old and had known they had HIV for 15 years. 75% of them were followed at Bichat hospital, the others were followed at Beaujon hospital (Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris / AP-HP).
20 patients were identified as suffering from sex addiction, bringing the prevalence to 22% of the cohort. “When we know that sexual addiction affects 3 to 6% of the general population, we can only note that sexual addiction is much more developed in men carrying HIV,” says Stéphane Darbeda.
Younger
Compared to HIV-positive patients who were not sexually addicted, the 20 cohort members were on average younger, used more pro-erectile substances, and had more sex with strangers. They were also followers of chemsex, a new phenomenon that involves having sex while using drugs, sometimes for several days.
The death rate of people with HIV having been very high for years, the study of such a cohort could only be done very recently, thanks to the arrival of triple therapy in particular.
The PEACCE tool
If sex addiction is not officially listed in the DSM-5 (American classification of psychiatric diseases), it meets the clinical characteristics of addictive disease. Marie Rouvrais and her team thus evaluated whether the patients in the cohort suffered from sexual addiction using the PEACCE * tool, which offers to answer the following questions (French adaptation by Laurent Karila):
1. Do you find that you are often preoccupied with sexual thoughts? (Thoughts)
2. Do you hide some of your sexual behavior from those around you (life partner, family, close friends, etc.)? (Entourage)
3. Have you ever sought help for sexual behavior that we don’t like doing? (Aid)
4. Has anyone ever been emotionally hurt as a result of your sexual behavior? (Consequences)
5. Do you feel controlled by your sexual desire? (Control)
6. Do you feel sad after having sexually acted out (sex, internet, other)? (Emotions)
* Test proposed by doctor Patrick Carnes, author of “Out of the Shadows: understanding Sexual Addiction (1983)”.
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