ReviewThe Role of Cognitive Processing Factors in Sexual Function and Dysfunction in Women and Men: A Systematic Review
Section snippets
Search Strategy
This systematic review followed the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.5 To identify as many relevant articles as possible for this review, we conducted a literature search using the PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost databases (Academic Search Complete, PsycARTICLES, Medline, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection) using the following search expression: (process∗ OR cognit∗ OR causal attribution∗ OR efficacy expectation∗ OR
Results
The study selection process is outlined in Figure 1. The database search yielded a total of 10,261 articles initially, with 30 additional records identified through other sources. Once duplicates were excluded, 122 articles remained for screening. Of these, 41 were removed because they discussed topics such as general cognitions, affective factors, or non-processing cognitive factors (ie, sexual beliefs), assessed populations with clinical health conditions (ie, fibromyalgia), or were secondary
Conclusion
This review provides an up-to-date and systematic overview of the cognitive processing dimensions implicated in women's and men's sexual function and dysfunction. Cognitive processing factors are considered to maintain sexual difficulties by influencing how one processes and responds to sexual episodes, which ultimately makes a critical contribution to the way in which individuals anticipate and react to future sexual events. To comprehensively examine this premise, a total of 67 studies,
Statement of authorship
Category 1 Conception and Design Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
Acquisition of Data
Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
Analysis and Interpretation of Data
Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
- (a)
Drafting the Article
Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
- (b)
Revising It for Intellectual Content
Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
- (a)
Final Approval of the Completed Article
Inês M. Tavares; Catarina V. Moura; Pedro J. Nobre
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Conflict of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the COMPETE 2020 program (CPUP UID/PSI/00050/2013, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-0072). Dr Tavares is supported by a grant from FCT (SFRH/BD/131808/2017).