Sexual Aversion, Sexual Phobias and Panic Disorder

Sexual avoidance disorders are the primary complaint of many patients seeking help for sexual dificulties and have been recommended as a new diagnostic entity in DSM-III-R under the category Disorders of Sexual Desire. Now, Helen Singer Kaplan, author of the widely used volumes, The New Sex Therapy and Disorders of Sexual Desire has written a pioneering book that provides the first integration of brief psychodynamic therapy with antipanic medication. She demonstraties that both psychotherapy and medication have valuable but entirely distinct functions in the treatment of these sexual disorders and both are needed to help patients with drug-responsive sexual anxiety. Sexual Aversion, Sexual Phobias And Panic Disorders provides a detaied guide to the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. It first describes the clinical features of the sexual avoidance syndromes and panic disorder. Then a pluralistic concept of the etiology of sexual phobias is presented, stressing the interplay between the patients biological vulnerability and the efects of cultural, neurotic, and relationship stresses. Following is an unusually valuable chapter on Sexual Disorders and Medication written by Donald F. Klein, M.D., one of the country's foremost experts in psychopharmacology. He discusses the appropriate prescription of medication following the careful differential diagnosis of anxious and depressive states in patients complaining of sexual disorders. Succeeding chapters cover an integrated approach to treatment that combines medication with brief psychodynamic therapy; conjoint sex therapy with couples who have problems related to their separation anxiety and rejection sensitvity; and some hypotheses about drugs and the psychodynamic process. Throughout the volume, detailed cse studies make clear the diagnosis and treatment of patients with sexual avoidance syndromes. Sexual Aversion, Sexual Phobias And Panic Disorders is an indispensible volume for all physicians and couples, and familes with sexual problems. --- from book's dustjacket