The Association Between Sexual Functioning and Suicide Risk in U.S. Military Veteran Couples Seeking Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Publication Date

7-2020

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

U.S. military, Veterans, Sexual functioning, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Suicide risk, Relationship functioning, Couples

Abstract

Intimate relationship distress has been identified as one of the most common precipitants of suicidal thoughts for U.S. military populations. Sexual functioning is associated with relationship distress and has recently been identified as a predictor of suicidal ideation with female military personnel; however, no studies have examined this association among a treatment-seeking sample of male and female veterans and their partners. Couples (N = 138) completed baseline assessments of sexual functioning, relationship functioning, suicidal ideation, and mental health prior to evaluation for engagement in a couples-based PTSD treatment study. Analyses revealed that decreased sexual pleasure and decreased frequency of sexual intercourse were associated with more recent suicidal ideation for male veterans, whereas increased sexual frequency was marginally associated with increased suicidal ideation for female veterans, controlling for PTSD and depression symptoms, relationship satisfaction, and medications. These findings stress the importance of assessing sexual functioning as a risk factor for suicide and taking into consideration the possibility that sexual functioning may be protective or predictive of suicidality depending on the person and context.

Copyright Date

1-8-2020

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Khalifian, C. E., Knopp, K., Wilks, C. R., Wooldridge, J., Sohn, M. J., Thomas, D., & Morland, L. A. (2020). The association between sexual functioning and suicide risk in U.S. military veteran couples seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(5), 1601–1613. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01577-x

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative.

Rights Holder

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

13 pgs

File Size

890 KB

Publication Title

Archives of Sexual Behavior

Volume

49

Issue

5

First Page

1601

Last Page

1613

ISSN

1573-2800

PubMed ID

31915971

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