Previously submitted to: JMIR Dermatology (no longer under consideration since Jul 16, 2025)
Date Submitted: Aug 13, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 26, 2024 - Oct 21, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Investigating Sexual Dysfunction in Patients on Isotretinoin, and Evaluating Patient Education Practices among Dermatologists: Survey Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Isotretinoin, a common treatment for severe cystic nodular acne, provides anti-inflammatory effects and alleviates symptoms. Despite its efficacy, the medication has been linked to many well-documented side effects, including arthralgias, xerosis, and birth defects; however, it also introduces new contributions to sexual dysfunction, presenting opportunity for further research and patient education.
Objective:
To elucidate the prevalence of sexual dysfunction symptoms among patients taking isotretinoin and examine the extent to which these patients received counseling on potential sexual dysfunction from their dermatologist.
Methods:
Research was conducted through patient completion of a survey study assessing patients’ adverse reactions to isotretinoin and the education provided by their dermatologist.
Results:
144 participants completed the survey. Of the female respondents (N=118), 33% experienced vaginal dryness with isotretinoin use, and of the male respondents (N=23), 34.7% experienced erectile dysfunction while using isotretinoin. 6.8% of female participants reported discussing vaginal dryness as a potential side effect with their prescribing dermatologist prior to starting isotretinoin while 4.3% of male respondents reported discussing erectile dysfunction, ejaculatory failure, and delayed ejaculation.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates the opportunity for improved awareness and counseling on isotretinoin’s impact on sexual health.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.