Deep brain stimulation to reduce sexual drive

Abstract

To date there are few treatment options to reduce high sexual drive or sexual urges in paraphilic patients with a risk for sexual offending. Pharmacological therapy aims to reduce sexual drive by lowering testosterone at the cost of severe side effects. We hypothesize that high sexual drive could also be reduced with deep brain stimulation (DBS) of circuits that generate sexual drive. This approach would help to avoid systemic side effects of antiandrogenic drug therapies. So far the best investigated target to reduce sexual drive is the ventromedial hypothalamus, which was lesioned unilaterally and bilaterally by stereotaxic interventions in paraphilic patients in the 1970s. Here, we discuss DBS as a treatment strategy in patients with severe paraphilic disorders with a serious risk of sexual offending. There are profound ethical and practical issues associated with DBS treatment of paraphilic patients that must be solved before considering such a treatment approach.