title: The effects of common medications on volumetric phallometry.
abstract: Phallometry is a physiological measure of sexual response widely used for the assessment of paedophilia among sexual offenders. Although many medications decrease penile response sufficiently to interfere with sexual intercourse, it is unknown to what extent such medications might interfere with phallometric testing. In the current study, we utilized a naturalistic convenience sample of 1078 men who attended a clinic for assessment of sexual preferences, mostly related to sexual offence convictions. In the present analyses, we quantified the differences in penile response during phallometric assessment associated with taking a range of common medications. Participants on medication typically showed less penile output than participants not taking medications; however, differences were largely accounted for by age rather than by medication status. Though most medications were associated with decreases in penile responsivity during volumetric phallometric testing, such changes were small in absolute terms and appeared to be associated with ageing rather than with the medications themselves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New England , Armidale , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Amy D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Lykins
authors.affiliation: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health , Toronto , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto , Toronto , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health , Toronto , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cantor
keywords: Age; drugs; medication; phallometric assessment; sexual response