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. 2021 May 13;10(10):2090.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10102090.

Erectile Dysfunction Is the Main Correlate of Depression in Men with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Arcangelo Barbonetti  1 , Settimio D'Andrea  1 , Chiara Castellini  1 , Maria Totaro  1 , Mario Muselli  2 , Francesca Cavallo  3 , Giorgio Felzani  3 , Stefano Necozione  2 , Sandro Francavilla  1
Affiliations

Erectile Dysfunction Is the Main Correlate of Depression in Men with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Arcangelo Barbonetti et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Depression is the most prevalent psychological issue after a spinal cord injury (SCI) and is associated with noticeable disability, mortality and health expenditure. As SCI mainly occurs in sexually active men at a young age, and can lead to them suffering from an organic neurogenic erectile dysfunction (ED), we supposed that ED could be a major correlate of depressive status in men with SCI. As documented by a Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) score ≥14, depression was reported in 17 out of 57 men with a chronic SCI (29.8%). They exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of ED and a more severe bowel and bladder dysfunction when compared to the group without depression. At the multiple logistic regression analysis, depression showed a significant independent association with ED (OR = 19.0, 95% CI: 3.1, 203.3; p = 0.004) and, to a lesser extent, with a severe impairment of bowel and bladder function (OR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.94; p = 0.01). Depression was observed in 43.7% of men with ED and only in 12.0% of those without ED (p = 0.002). In conclusion, healthcare providers should give the right level of importance to the management of ED in men with SCI, as this represents a major independent correlate of depression, which, in turn, might hinder physical rehabilitation and exacerbate physical health issues related to SCI.

Keywords: impotence; mood disorders; paraplegia; psychological health; quadriplegia; sexual dysfunction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of spinal cord injured, depressed men with and without erectile dysfunction (ED). * p = 0.002.
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