Comportamento sessuale ed immaginario erotico in donne tossicodipendenti

Background. The aim of the study is to evaluate the dimension of sexuality in its two components of sexual behavior and erotic imagery in a sample of opiate addicted females. This study is based on the hypothesis that the relation between sexual behavior and mental images may acquire a peculiar meaning in the field of addiction. Methods. The sample consists of 40 addicted women living in therapeutic communities for rehabilitation and social reintegration, and 40 women with similar socio-demographic features as controls. Instruments used for the evaluation are: schedule for socio-demographic data; sex and the average woman (or man), questionnaire (H. J. Eysenck-G. Wilson); TIPE (L. Valente Torre). Results. The relation between sexual behavior and erotic imagery has been statistically conducted by crossing the obtained variables with the r Pearson's coefficient applied to Eysenck Inventory's 14 factors and to the TIPE's 3 erotical factors. We considered statistically significant the correlations with an error threshold lower than 5%. Conclusions. Our sample of addicted women tend to live sexuality in a dysfunctional and unsatisfactory way. Moreover, the presence of splitted erotic images let us hypothesize that these subjects could not be able to integrate the behavioral and sentimental components of sexuality, probably due to the mechanism of splitting operating in the area of objective relations.