Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T04:27:23.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is there Hypothalamic - Pituitary - Gonadal Dysfunction in Paedophilia?

A Pilot Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Gary R. Gaffney  and
Fred S. Berlin
Gary R. Gaffney*
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, 500 Newton Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Fred S. Berlin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The hypothalamic - pituitary - gonadal axis was evaluated in men with paedophilia and non-paedophilic paraphilia, and in normal male controls, by infusion of 100 meg. of synthetic luteinising hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH). There were no significant differences among groups in age, height, weight, testosterone, baseline luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), and FSH response to LHRH. However, there was a significant difference between the paedophilic group and the other two groups in the LH response to LHRH. The paedophiles responded with a marked elevation of LH, when compared with the non-paedophilic paraphiliacs and controls. These data indicate a hypothalamic - pituitary - gonadal dysfunction in paedophiles.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 6 , December 1984 , pp. 657 - 660
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Reprint requests

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Third ed., Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association Google Scholar
Bancroft, J., Tennent, G., Loucask, K. & Cass, J. (1974) The control of deviant sexual behaviour by drugs: I. Behavioural changes following oestrogens and antiandrogens. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 310–315.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. (1977) Hormones and sexual behaviour. Psychological Medicine, 7, 553–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berlin, F. S. & Meinecke, C. F. (1981) Treatment of sex offenders with antiandrogenic medication: Conceptualization, review of treatment modalities and preliminary findings. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 601–607.Google Scholar
Berlin, F. S. (1982) Sex offenders: a biomedical perspective. In Sexual Aggression: Current Perspectives on Treatment (eds. Greer, J. & Stuart, I.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
Boyar, R. M. & Aiman, J. (1982) The 24-hour secretory pattern of LH and the response to LHRH in transsexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 11, 157–169.Google Scholar
Buhrich, N., Theile, H., Yaw, A. & Crawford, A. (1979) Plasma testosterone, serum FSH and serum LH levels in transvestism. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 8, 49–53.Google Scholar
De Lecarda, L., Kowarski, A., Johanson, A. J., Athanasiou, R. & Migeon, C. J. (1973) Integrated concentration and circadian variation of plasma testosterone in normal men. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 37, 366–371.Google Scholar
Evans, I. M. & Distiller, L. A. (1979) Effects of luteinizing hormone—releasing hormone on sexual arousal in normal men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 8, 385–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrier, I. N., Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. J. & Rincon-Rodriguez, I. (1983) Anterior pituitary hormone secretion in chronic schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 755–761.Google Scholar
Frosch, J. & Brimbers, W. (1939) The sex offender—a psychiatric study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 9, 761–776.Google Scholar
Harman, S. M., Tsitouras, P. D., Costa, P. T., Loriaux, D. L. & Sherins, R. J. (1982) Evaluation of pituitary gonadotropic function in men: Value of luteinizing hormone—releasing hormone response versus basal luteinizing hormone level for discrimination of diagnosis. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 54, 196–200.Google Scholar
Hollander, M. & Wolfe, D. A. (1973) Nonparametric Statistical Methods, New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Laferla, J. J., Anderson, D. L. & Schalch, D. S. (1979) Psychoendocrine response to sexual arousal in human males. Psychosomatic Medicine, 40, 166–172.Google Scholar
Livingstone, I. R., Sagel, J. Distiller, L. A., Morley, J. & Katz, M. (1978) The effect of luteinizing releasing hormone (LRH) on primary gonadotropins in male homosexuals. Hormone and Metabolic Research, 10, 248–249.Google Scholar
Money, J. (1970) Use of an androgen—depleting hormone in the treatment of male sex offenders. Journal of Sexual Research, 6, 165–172.Google Scholar
Mosier, H. D., Scott, L. W. & Dingman, H. F. (1960) Sexually deviant behavior in Klinefelter's Syndrome. Journal of Pediatrics, 57, 479–483.Google Scholar
Moss, R. L. & McCann, S. M. (1973) Induction of mating behavior in rats by luteinizing hormone—releasing factor. Science, 181, 177–179.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. (1970) Criminality among patients with Klinefelter's syndrome and the XYY syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 365–369.Google Scholar
Penny, R., Guyda, J. H., Baghdassarian, A., Johanson, A. J. & Blizzard, R. M. (1970) Correlation of serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) as measured by radioimmunoassay in disorders of sexual development. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 49, 1847–1852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pfaff, D. W. (1973) Luteinizing hormone—releasing factor potentiates lordosis behavior in hypophysectomized ovariectomized female rats. Science, 182, 1148–1149.Google Scholar
Rada, R. T., Laws, D. R. & Kellner, R. (1976) Plasma testosterone levels in the rapist. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 257–268.Google Scholar
Rada, R. T. (1980) Plasma androgens and the sex offender. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 8, 456–464.Google Scholar
Revitch, E. & Weiss, R. G. (1962) The pedophilic offender. Diseases of the Nervous System, 23, 73–78.Google Scholar
Schroder, J., de la Chapelle, A., Hakola, P. & Virkkunen, M. (1981) The frequency of XYY and XXY men among criminal offenders. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 63, 272–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smals, A. G. H., Kloppenborg, P. W. C., Lequin, R. M. & Bernraad, T. J. (1976) The effect of gonadotropin releasing hormone on pituitary—gonadal function in Klinefelter's Syndrome. Acta Endocrinologica, 83, 829–838.Google Scholar
Wakeling, A. (1972) Comparative study of psychiatric patients with Klinefelter's Syndrome and hypogonadism. Psychological Medicine, 2, 139–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, C. A. (1939) The sex offender's endocrines. Medical Record, 149, 399–402.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.