title: Psychosocial factors discriminate oligozoospermic from normozoospermic men.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the profile of psychosocial variables in a group of oligozoospermic and normozoospermic men for assessing the hypothesis of a relationship between impaired seminal status and psychosocial factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Double-blind investigation of the psychosocial differences between oligozoospermics and normozoospermics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy volunteers in a clinical environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred eighty men attending their first seminal examination.
  
  
  METHODS
  We selected 37 oligozoospermic patients on the basis of sperm concentration and 37 normozoospermic controls for comparison.
  
  
  METHODS
  Differences in alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, externally oriented thinking), personality traits (extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism), and coping style toward stressors (task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, avoidance-oriented coping) were assessed in the two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Wilk's Lambda (.79) of the discriminant analysis showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The following variables met the inclusion criterion in the discriminant function: psychoticism and difficulty describing feeling. This analysis also showed a high probability of correct classification of oligozoospermic men on the basis of the psychosocial variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relationship between psychosocial variables and seminal status has been confirmed in a group of oligozoospermic and normozoospermic men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza,", Rome, Italy. luigi.degennaro@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Gennaro
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balistreri
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lenzi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lombardo
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrara
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gandini
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009845:Oligospermia / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D013076:Sperm Count