The impact of marital satisfaction and psychological counselling on the outcome of ICI-treatment in men with ED.

We investigated the relationship between marital satisfaction and choice of and compliance with treatment in 195 consecutive men with erectile dysfunction (ED). Marital satisfaction as measured by means of the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire (MMQ), was compared between four groups: (1) patients on intracavernous injection (ICI) treatment after the trial-dose phase (32%); (2) patients dropped out ICI in the trial-dose phase (12%); (3) patients on other treatment (31%); and (4) patients following first counselling renounced treatment (25%). Above, in a small group of 15 patients the effect of ICI treatment in combination with short-term psychological counselling (ICI + treatment) was assessed. No significant differences were found in marital satisfaction between the four groups. In the ICI + treatment group we experienced that providing information about factors that contribute to erectile function and enabling couples to communicate about sexual problems were the most important factors to increase efficacy of ICI treatment.