P11#2

15 days ago

Marianne Alfaro 

Week 11- Voyeurism

COLLAPSE

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Week 11: Paraphilic Disorders -Voyeurism

 

            Paraphilic disorders are paraphilias that cause distress or cause problems functioning in the person with the paraphilia or that harm or may harm another person(Gabbard, 2014). Paraphilic disorders can seriously impair the capacity for affectionate, shared sexual activity (Gabbard, 2014).Partners of people with a paraphilic disorder may feel like an object or as if they are unimportant or unnecessary in the sexual relationship.

            Voyeurism involves becoming sexually aroused by watching an unsuspecting person who is disrobing, naked, or engaged in sexual activity (Voyeurism, 2007).Voyeuristic disorder involves acting on voyeuristic urges or fantasies or being distressed by or unable to function because of those urges and fantasies( Voyeurism, 2007). Voyeuristic disorder is one of the most common paraphilias. Voyeurism usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood(Voyeurism, 2007).According to the American Psychiatric Association (2013), the diagnostic criteria for paraphilic disorders are A. Over a period of at least six months, recurrent and intense sexual arousal from observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity, as manifested by fantasies, urges, or behaviors’. The individual has acted on these sexual urges with a nonconsenting person, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause clinically significant distress, or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, C. The individual experiencing the arousal and/or acting on the urges is at least 18 years of age(American Psychiatric Association (2013).

Psychosexual evaluation and treatment

            The etiology of paraphilias is unknown, but it is probably a learned behavior and are lifelong conditions. Treatment is focused on decreasing the arousal to the deviant sexual behavior, rather than extinguishing the sexual orientation (McManus et al., 2013). Cognitive behavioral therapy such as aversion and reconditioning have been the mainstay of treatment for sex offenders and for the paraphilias for the past three decades(McManus et al., 2013). Its main treatment approach involves decreasing inappropriate sexual arousal through a variety of techniques, including covert sensitization, satiation, fading, and systematic desensitization(McManus et al., 2013). This approach also aims to enhance appropriate sexual arousal to adult partners through techniques such as orgasmic reconditioning or fading.Phamacological treatments can include SSRI’s and at times drugs that reduce testosterone levels and thus reduce the sex drive may be used. These drugs include leuprolide and medroxyprogesterone acetate(McManus et al., 2013). People must give their informed consent to the use of these drugs, and doctors regularly must do blood tests to monitor the drug’s effects on liver function.

 

 

 

Reference

 

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

 

Gabbard, G.O. (2014). Gabbard’s treatment of psychiatric disorders (5th ed.).Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publications

 

McManus, M. A., Hargreaves, P., Rainbow, L., & Alison, L. J. (2013). Paraphilias: definition, diagnosis and treatment. F1000prime reports, 5, 36. https://doi.org/10.12703/P5-36

 

Stahl, S. M. (2014b). The prescriber’s guide (5th ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

 

Voyeurism. (2007). International Journal of Sexual Health 19(1):47-56

            Retrieved from : DOI: 10.1300/J514v19n01_06

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