Mating Strategies and Sexual Functioning in Personality Disorders: A Comprehensive Review of Literature

Personality disorders impair several aspects of intrapsychic and interpersonal life. In particular, mating strategies and sexual functioning could manifest in different and/or dysfunctional ways in people with personality disorders. AIM: To describe, through a comprehensive review of the literature, the mating strategies and sexual functioning in patients with personality disorders. METHODS: We listed and discussed the principal studies on the relation between mating strategies and sexual functioning in personality disorders. The search strategy used search terms in PubMed for the main studies published from January 2000 to December 2016. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We considered two main sections for our selection according to the aim of the present review: mating and sexuality. RESULTS: Interesting evidence on mating strategies in personality disorders was found. In particular, the major items were found in the dramatic-unpredictable cluster, with borderline personality disorder being the most studied. In contrast, the bizarre-eccentric cluster had fewer items, with the schizoid personality disorder being the least studied. For sexual behavior, borderline personality seems to be the unique disorder sufficiently studied, with evidence of major histories of child sexual abuse, the presence of sexual dysfunctions, and paraphilic interests. CONCLUSION: A large spectrum of mating strategies characterizes different personality disorders, although an inconsistent knowledge about the relation between sexual function and personality disorders emerged from our analysis of the literature. Hence, we invite clinicians and researchers to integrate psychodiagnostic and sexual assessments in psychiatric disciplines for people with personality disorders.