Heart Rate Variability: A Risk Factor for Female Sexual Dysfunction.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of autonomic nervous system activity, which reflects an individual's ability to adapt to physiological and environmental changes. Low resting HRV has been linked to several mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and alcohol dependence (Kemp et al. in Biological Psychiatry 67(11):1067-1074, 2010.

Linguistic changes in expressive writing predict psychological outcomes in women with history of childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual dysfunction.

An expressive writing treatment was recently reported to reduce depressive symptoms and improve sexual function and satisfaction in a sample of female survivors of childhood sexual abuse (Meston, Lorenz, & Stephenson, 2013). We conducted a linguistic analysis of this data to determine whether pre- to posttreatment changes in participants' language use were associated with the improvements in sexuality and depression. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a program that counts the use of word categories within a text, was used to evaluate the impact of several word categories, previously associated with changes in mental health (Frattaroli, 2006), and shown to differ between childhood sexual abuse survivors and nonabused women (Lorenz & Meston, 2012), on treatment outcomes.

Physiological stress responses predict sexual functioning and satisfaction differently in women who have and have not been sexually abused in childhood.

Physiological responses to sexual stimuli may contribute to the increased rate of sexual problems seen in women with childhood sexual abuse (CSA) histories. We compared two physiological stress responses as predictors of sexual function and satisfaction, sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation and cortisol in women with (CSA, = 136) and without CSA histories (NSA, = 102). In CSA survivors, cortisol response to sexual stimuli did not significantly predict sexual functioning; however, in NSA women, cortisol increases were associated with poorer sexual functioning, and decreases with higher functioning.

Sudden Gains During Patient-Directed Expressive Writing Treatment Predicts Depression Reduction in Women with History of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Sudden gains are large reductions in symptoms measured in a single between-session interval and are positively associated with long-term treatment outcomes. To date, sudden gains have mostly been observed in therapist-directed psychotherapies. There are currently mixed findings surrounding the mechanisms underlying sudden gains, with some support for a cognitive mechanism and some support for therapist characteristics such as the therapeutic alliance.

Effects of expressive writing on sexual dysfunction, depression, and PTSD in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse: results from a randomized clinical trial.

Introduction: Women with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have high rates of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and sexual problems in adulthood.

Aim: We tested an expressive writing-based intervention for its effects on psychopathology, sexual function, satisfaction, and distress in women who have a history of CSA.

Methods: Seventy women with CSA histories completed five 30-minute sessions of expressive writing, either with a trauma focus or a sexual schema focus.

Acute exercise improves physical sexual arousal in women taking antidepressants.

Background: Antidepressants can impair sexual arousal. Exercise increases genital arousal in healthy women, likely due to increasing sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity.

Purpose: Test if exercise increases genital arousal in women taking antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which suppress SNS activity, and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), which suppress the SNS less.

Associations among childhood sexual abuse, language use, and adult sexual functioning and satisfaction.

Objectives: To better understand the link between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adult sexual functioning and satisfaction, we examined cognitive differences between women with (N=128) and without (NSA, N=99) CSA histories.

Methods: We used the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count, a computerized text analysis program, to investigate language differences between women with and without CSA histories when writing about their daily life (neutral essay) and their beliefs about sexuality and their sexual experiences (sexual essay).

Results: Compared to NSA women, women with CSA histories used fewer first person pronouns in the neutral essay but more in the sexual essay, suggesting women with CSA histories have greater self-focus when thinking about sexuality.

Evidence for a curvilinear relationship between sympathetic nervous system activation and women's physiological sexual arousal.

There is increasing evidence that women's physiological sexual arousal is facilitated by moderate sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation. Literature also suggests that the level of SNS activation may play a role in the degree to which SNS activity affects sexual arousal. We provide the first empirical examination of a possible curvilinear relationship between SNS activity and women's genital arousal using a direct measure of SNS activation in 52 sexually functional women.