Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:932-937
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Sleep-related penile tumescence as a function of age
I Karacan, RL Williams, JI Thornby and PJ Salis
The authors conducted a study of nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) in 125
healthy males aged 3 to 79 by means of EEG recordings to provide normative
data on how general the phenomenon is, its range of charateristics, and how
it is related to man's sexual function. The results indicate that NPT
occurs consistently in a healthy male population, that its expression is
significantly affected by age, that it is related to stage of psychosexual
development, and that it is worthy of further investigation. Clinical
experience indicates that it is a useful, objective method of
discriminating among various types of biogenic and psychogenic impotence.
