In my role as the Director of The Johns Hopkins Sex and Gender Clinic, I have had the opportunity to provide care to 3 broad categories of patients: patients with sexual dysfunctions, patients experiencing gender dysphoria, and patients manifesting a paraphilic disorder. This article will not address sexual dysfunctions or gender dysphoria, but these terms are defined in the Box1-3 to clearly distinguish them from paraphilic disorders.
Box
Sexual dysfunction, paraphilic disorders, and gender dysphoria
Individuals with a sexual dysfunction (eg, erectile dysfunction or anorgasmia) generally experience conventional sexual feelings, but they may have difficulty performing sexually.1 Although ordinarily capable of adequate sexual performance, persons with a paraphilic disorder experience atypical erotic cravings.2 Such cravings can either be for an atypical or unacceptable category of potential partner (eg, animals or children), or for an atypical or unacceptable type of behavior (eg, crossdressing or public exhibitionism). Individuals with gender dysphoria frequently experience distress because their internal sense of feeling either male or female is not congruent with their external physical anatomy.3 The primary concerns of individuals experiencing gender dysphoria relate to feelings of gender identity, as opposed to problems involving erotic arousal.
Persons with paraphilic disorders (predominantly males) experience recurrent atypical sexual fantasies and urges that cause clinically significant impairment or distress.1 Those atypical fantasies and urges may be directed towards unacceptable partners such as animals or children, or towards unacceptable behaviors such as public exhibitionism. Table 11 lists the paraphilic disorders identified in DSM-5. This article focuses primarily, though not exclusively, upon pedophilic disorder, and its pharmacologic treatment. However, the rationale underlying such treatment is applicable across the paraphilic spectrum. Before providing such treatment, it is important for clinicians to have a clear conceptual understanding of paraphilic disorders.
When is a difference a disorder?
Cancer and respiration are 2 different biologic phenomenon. Cancer causes suffering and impairment, and as a consequence, we label it a disorder. We do so in the hope of learning more about it, and being able to successfully treat it. We do not classify respiration as a disorder because we do not consider it to be harmful.
The spectrum of human sexuality is quite broad, and psychiatry is generally not concerned with private sexual thoughts and behaviors involving consenting adults that do not cause suffering or impairment. When adults choose to engage in “kinky sex” that causes neither harm nor distress, so be it.
Some individuals may be privately aware of experiencing either an exclusive or nonexclusive sexual attraction to children. Some of these individuals may not be distressed by experiencing such attractions, and may be fully capable of resisting the temptation to enact them. In such an instance, even though an individual may be experiencing sexual attractions that are different from the norm, there may not be a sufficient basis for diagnosing pedophilic disorder. However, that difference in sexual phenomenology (ie, mental experience) could rise to the level of a diagnosable disorder if the individual in question expresses distress about experiencing such attractions, and/or if his capacity to resist acting upon them is impaired.4 Under such circumstances, treatment would be warranted.
Patients with paraphilic disorders deserve treatment
Prior to establishment of the Betty Ford Clinic in 1982, individuals who were drug- or alcohol-dependent were often portrayed in a negative light and referred to by derogatory pejoratives such as “bum” or “pothead.”5 Over time, society came to appreciate that good people, deserving of treatment, can become dependent upon substances, and in recent years there has been considerable support for related research initiatives and humane care. However, there has not been analogous support for individuals who manifest paraphilic disorders, especially those with pedophilic disorder. Instead, such individuals are often perceived as undeserving of mental health care and resources. This has been the case, even though successful treatment of a pedophilic disorder could help prevent the serious consequences of child molestation from occurring.
In contemporary society, the term pedophilia, which is a psychiatric specifier intended to guide research and treatment, has been hijacked by the nonmedical community and turned into a demeaning pejorative. In the collective consciousness of the public, the term pedophilia is routinely and mistakenly equated with the behavior of child molestation. Just as all alcoholics are not drunk drivers, all individuals with pedophilic disorder are not “child molesters.” Conversely, not all “child molesters” have pedophilic disorder.
Continue to: Individuals with other types...