Sexual Dysfunctions in Women Cindy M. Meston and Andrea Bradford Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712; email: meston@psy.utexas.edu Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2007. 3:233–56 First published online as a Review in Advance on October 12, 2006 The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology is online at http://clinpsy.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091507 Copyright c  2007 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved 1548-5943/07/0427-0233$20.00 Key Words women’s sexuality, orgasm, desire, arousal, sexual pain Abstract In this article, we summarize the definition, etiology, assessment, and treatment of sexual dysfunctions in women. Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV- TR) is our guiding framework for classifying and defining women’s sexual dysfunctions, we draw special attention to recent discussion in the literature criticizing the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria and their underlying assumptions. Our review of clinical research on sexual dysfunction summarizes psychosocial and biomedical man- agement approaches, with a critical examination of the empirical support for commonly prescribed therapies and limitations of re- cent clinical trials. 233 Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2007.3:233-256. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by University of Texas - Austin on 04/03/07. For personal use only.