Stress Hormones, Mood and Women's Sexual Desire (MODEST)

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Women with Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) have all measures of testosterone activity comparable to controls but lower levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Although DHEA is a precursor of testosterone it has other actions including involvement in the stress system. It is also linked to mood. This study focuses on measures of childhood stress, current mood and salivary stress hormones, in women with and without HSDD. We hypothesize that low levels of DHEA reflect dysfunction of the neuroendocrine stress response system involving the brain, pituitary and adrenal glands where DHEA is produced.

Official Title
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Stress Hormones, Mood and Women's Sexual Desire (MODEST)

Conditions
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Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD)

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria for HSDD Group: (1) diagnosis of HSDD (2) over 19 years of age (3) sexual complaints of low desire of at least 12 months duration. Inclusion criteria for Control group: (1) sexually healthy, i.e., must not meet criteria for any sexual dysfunction, as determined by a telephone screening, followed by an in-person structured assessment, the Decreased Sexual Desire Screener (DSDS) (2) over 19 years of age. Exclusion Criteria for both Control and HSDD groups: (1) lack of fluency in English (2) currently meeting DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder as measured by an in-person, semi-structured interview based on the Major Depressive Disorder Module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR (SCID-I (3) current use of prescription drugs such as antidepressants or other medications with known sexual side effects (e.g., glucocorticoids, aromatase inhibitors), or known effects on cortisol metabolism, or use of illicit drugs (4) use of hormone replacement therapy or hormonal contraceptives; (5) a body mass index (BMI) <18.5 or >29.9 (6) cigarette smoking (7) chronic medical or psychiatric disease with potential to interfere with sexual function (e.g., chronic neurological disease, cardiac and liver disease, eating disorders, anxiety disorders) (8) chronic pain with intercourse not relieved by a vaginal lubricant (9) loss of genital responsiveness (10) significant relationship discord (11) not having a family physician who we could contact if depression is diagnosed during the assessment (12) difficulty in complying with questionnaires or in completing interview.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 19 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| HSDD group<br>Women with a diagnosis of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). | |
| Control Group<br>Women without a diagnosis of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| DHEA levels | DHEA levels derived from saliva samples. | Data is collected at 4 time points on 3 separate days | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cortisol levels | Cortisol levels derived from saliva samples. | Data is collected at 4 time points on 3 separate days | 
| Depression | Depression will be measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Beamesderfer, 1974) | data is collected at single time point | 
| Perceived stress | Perceived stress will be measured with the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (Roberti, Harrington & Storch 2006) | data is collected at a single time point | 
| Sexual function | Self-report sexual function will be measured with the Sexual Interest and Desire Inventory (Clayton et al. 2006)) | data is collected at a single time point | 
| Relationship satisfaction | Relationship satisfaction will be measured with the Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1988) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976) | data is collected at a single time point | 
| History of childhood trauma | History of childhood trauma will be determined with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink, 1995) | dat is collected at a single timepoint | 
| History of childhood sexual abuse | History of Childhood Sexual Abuse will be determined with the Childhood Sexual Abuse Measure (Finkelhor, 1979) | data is collected at a single time point | 
| PTSD symptoms | Presence and severity of post traumatic stress disorder symptoms will be determined through the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (Blake et al. 1998) | data is collected at a single time point | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder, HSDD, Cortisol, DHEA, Stress Hormones, Mood, Sexual Function, Childhood Maltreatment, Childhood Abuse, Sexual Desire