Sexual performances after mild and moderate head injury in Indian adult males: An institutional experience

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide than any other injuries. Disorders in sexual functions constitute one of the most prevalent and least discussed problems following head injury, which need to be studied in detail. OBJECTIVE: To find out the intensity of sexual dysfunction following head injury in Indian adult males. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Prospective cohort study was conducted among 75 adult Indian males with mild and moderate head injury with Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) 4 or 5. Arizona sexual experience (ASEX) scale was used to evaluate sexual changes in these male patients following TBI. RESULTS: Most of the patients experienced satisfactory sexual changes (P < 0.0001) in terms of sex drive, sexual arousal, erection, ease of orgasm and orgasm satisfaction. Most of the patients (77.3%) showed a total individual score of ≤18 on ASEX scale. A score of <5 on any one item on ASEX scale was seen in majority (80%) of the patients. In our study, sexual changes experienced following TBI were significantly (P < 0.0001) of mild severity as compared with moderate and severe sexual disability. Type of head injury was not associated with significant (P > 0.05) sexual changes experienced following TBI. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, some patients experienced mild sexual disability. Addressing those sexual issues, sexual education and rehabilitation programmes following head injury should be an integral part of follow-up care in such patients.