TABLE 3.

Case Vignettes From the Study Cohort

Case #1 was a 65-year-old divorced, retired man, father of two grown-up children. At the time of the study, he was in a romantic relationship but lived independently. At baseline, he rated his loss of sexual interest as “severe” and his problems with sexual arousal (erection) as “moderate.” After two t-PBM sessions (1 week), the patient reported only “mild” loss of sexual interest and “mild” problems with sexual arousal. Despite some waxing and waning of his ratings on sexual functioning from week to week, after completion of 15 t-PBM sessions, the patient consistently reported no problems with erection and only minimal decrease in sexual interest. During study visits, the patient joked that he had been more sexually active with his girlfriend to the point that she had asked him to return to his own apartment and spend the following nights there.

Case #2 was a 44-year-old married woman, a professional and mother of two young children. Before entering the study she had been treated for depression with Venlafaxine 75 mg every day for 6 weeks and continued this medication during the study. While she did not experience pronounced impairment with her sexual function before starting her antidepressant medication (despite being depressed), she then complained of both decreased libido and anorgasmia on Venlafaxine. Before starting her t-PBM sessions, she rated her loss of sexual interest as “severe,” her problems with sexual arousal “mild,” and her delayed or absent orgasm as “moderate.” After the first two sessions (1 week), her loss of sexual interest was rated as “moderate,” her issues with lubrication resolved, and her delayed or absent orgasm was “mild.” After 10 t-PBM sessions her sexual dysfunction had completely resolved. At the end of the study, the patient was perplexed that t-PBM was not a popular intervention and she equated her sexual functioning to her adolescence.

Case #3 was a 27-year-old single man, in a romantic relationship. At baseline, he reported “mild” loss of sexual interest and problems with sexual arousal (erection). At week 1, both sexual interest and arousal were normal and at week 2 only loss of sexual interest was present and rated as “mild.” During the study (week 1), the patient reported that his sexual interest and activity had nearly doubled: he went from having sex 4–5 times per week to 8—9 per week. After four t-PBM sessions (2 weeks), the patient stopped coming to the study visits and eventually dropped from the study.