R. Rossi

• Doctor of Psychology
• Institute Clinical Sexology, Italian Federation Scientific Sexology

Psicologia dello sviluppo psicoaffettivo e sessuale in adolescenza

Objectives The Sexual Distress Scale (SDS) is a validated and widespread used tool to assess the sexually-related personal distress in women. The present study aimed to test the psychometric characteristics of the 12-item version of the SDS (Derogatis et al., 2002) and of the 5-item short form of SDS-SF (Santos-Iglesias et al., 2020) in women and m...

Objectives To date, relatively few studies have provided an in-depth overview of approaches to treating paraphilic sexual fantasies. The different types of treatment were considered separately or some were not included or explored. The purpose of this systematic review is to provide a broad and in-depth overview of therapeutic approaches related to...

Objectives To date, relatively few studies have provided an in-depth overview of approaches to treating paraphilic sexual fantasies. The different types of treatment were considered separately or some were not included or explored. The purpose of this systematic review is to provide a broad and in-depth overview of therapeutic approaches related to...

Objectives The Sexual Distress Scale (SDS) is a validated and widespread used tool to assess the sexually-related personal distress in women. The present study aimed to test the psychometric characteristics of the 12-item version of the SDS (Derogatis et al., 2002) and of the 5-item short form of SDS-SF (Santos-Iglesias et al., 2020) in women and m...

Objectives Earlier diagnosis and improved treatments have led to better outcomes and prolonged survivals in breast cancer, making quality of life a key issue. Sexuality represents a pillar of quality of life, although it is often neglected in cancer. The aim of the current study was to explore differences in mental health, sexual experience and rel...

The study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Italian versions of the 12-item Sexual Distress Scale (SDS) and the 5-item Sexual Distress Scale-Short Form (SDS-SF). A total sample of 2291 adults (1361 women, 930 men) participated through a web survey completing the SDS, the FSFI, the IIEF, the PANAS and the SCL-90-R. The results supp...

Résumé Objectif Savoir quels sont les fantasmes érotiques les plus fréquents et les plus engageants pour les Italiens. Conception de l’étude Au total, 494 volontaires âgés de 18 à 65 ans ont été recrutés. Le questionnaire sur la fréquence des fantasmes, de l’excitation et du désir (QoFADF) a été utilisé pour étudier la fréquence des fantasmes, la...

Il tumore al seno è la forma di cancro più frequente e, ancora oggi, nonostante vi sia stato un miglioramento della prognosi, esso rimane la prima causa di morte da tumore nelle donne. L'obiettivo del presente studio è stato quello di valutare la qualità della vita e indagare gli aspetti psicologici, sessuologici ed affettivi in donne affette da ca...

Introduction The Biopsychosocial model (BPS) represents a comprehensive paradigm of consolidated practices. Although it has been outlined as the gold standard in sexology, its implementation is often challenging. The sex-positive approach is a ground-breaking movement that is gaining popularity all over and is focused on the recognition of differen...

Il carcinoma mammario rappresenta la neoplasia maligna più diffusa nella popolazione femminile e, nonostante i significativi progressi nella diagnosi e nel trattamento, essa si configura come la neoplasia con la più alta mortalità tra le donne in Occidente. La diagnosi e le terapie rappresentano non solo uno sconvolgimento sul piano fisico della do...

The Social Media and on-line communities have become important communi- cation channels for youth. The massive use of these technologies gave rise to an international debate on potential effects on relationships and sexuality. The aim of this paper is to study advantages and limits of Social Media as formal and informal source of information on sex...

Literature lacks wide studies on variables affecting sexual desire in men. Aim of this study was to explore the role of some psychosocial variables such as quality of life, sexual function, distress, sexual satisfaction, psychological symptoms, emotions, alexithymia, couple adjustment, sexism, dysfunctional beliefs, cognitive schemas, and modes. A...

I social media e le comunità online sono diventati importanti canali di comuni-cazione per i giovani. L'uso massiccio di queste tecnologie ha dato origine a un dibattito internazionale sui potenziali effetti sulle relazioni e sulla sessualità. Lo scopo di questo contributo è studiare i vantaggi e i limiti dei social media come fonte formale e infor...

Introduction & objectives: Transgenders’ Sexual Rights (SR) appear to be behind those of other minorities, probably because of the lack of knowledge among people, which often causes unfounded prejudices. Aim of this study was to analyze the level of agreement of Italian people with the SR of transgender people and to verify if some characteristics...

Diagnosi, trattamento e linee guida internazionali

Introduction: Hormonal contraceptives are among the most popular contraceptives used by women worldwide. Long-term adherence may vary significantly among users because of fear of side effects, unhealthy habits, and lack of knowledge, despite their proven effectiveness. Aim: To analyze the psychological, relational, sexual, and cultural factors a...

To grow old well is not simple in our society. To grow old successfully and be bisexual it is a kind of challenge. Negative attitudes toward bisexuals have been documented among heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. Older bisexual adults may then experience various forms of discrimination which will lead to marginalization and invisibility. Forming...

Résumé Vieillir en bonne santé n’est pas simple dans notre société. Vieillir avec succès et être bisexuel, est une sorte de défi. Des attitudes négatives envers les bisexuels ont été documentées chez les hétérosexuels aussi bien que chez les homosexuels. Les personnes âgées bisexuelles peuvent alors être victimes de diverses formes de discriminatio...

In recent years, the number of smartphone users has exploded worldwide and downloads of applications for these phones have increased significantly. The purpose of this article is to present a review of the literature on the use of smartphone applications to improve sexual health, suggesting how they can be used in sex education, counselling and the...

Applications pour smartphones Peuvent-elles être utiles pour l'éducation sexuelle, le counseling et la thérapie ? Ces dernières années, le nombre d'utilisateurs de smartphones a explosé dans le monde entier et les téléchargements d'applications pour ces téléphones ont considérablement augmenté. Le but de cet article est de présenter une revue de la...

Introduction: The literature showed the need for a better understanding of the male sexual response, which has historically been considered as simpler and more mechanistic compared with that in women. Aim: To examine the literature on biopsychosocial factors associated with the level of sexual desire in men and discuss some interesting direction...

Introduction: Literature lacks biopsychosocial models of men's sexuality. Regarding sexual desire, Carvalho and Nobre (J Sex Med 2011;8:754-763.) presented a cognitive-affective model including age, medical factors, dyadic adjustment, psychopathology, restrictive attitudes toward sexual activity, erection concerns, lack of erotic thoughts (LET), s...

Objective: Only recently the importance of Sexual Rights (SR) has been discussed at the international level and the issue has recently entered into public debate. In addition SR of both Male to Female (MtoF) and female to Male (FtoM) transsexuals appear to be far behind those of other minorities, probably because of the lack of knowledge by the peo...

The Social Media and online communities have become important communication channels for youth and the massive use of these technologies by new generations gave rise to an international debate regarding the potential effects on relationships and sexuality. The aim of this paper is to study advantages and limits of Social Media, as formal and inform...

Résumé Les médias sociaux et les communautés en ligne sont devenus des canaux de communication importants pour les jeunes et l’utilisation massive de ces technologies par les nouvelles générations a donné lieu à un débat international concernant leur effet potentiel sur les relations et la sexualité. Le but de cet article est d’étudier les avantage...

Helplines are common counselling services for men and women seeking advice for health, psychological and sexual problems. With the advent of the social media era, users have now more possibilities to search for information about sexual health than before. Comparing the recent data of a long-standing telephone counselling service on sexual health by...

In recent years, the numbers of smartphone users has surged across the world and downloads of smartphone apps have grown significantly, with smartphone usage increased to 73% among American adolescents since 2013. The main goal of this article is to present a review of the literature focusing the use of smartphone applications to improve sexual hea...

In recent years, the numbers of smartphone users has surged across the world and downloads of smartphone apps have grown significantly, with smartphone usage increased to 73% among American adolescents since 2013. The main goal of this article is to present a review of the literature focusing the use of smartphone applications to improve sexual hea...

Helplines are common counseling services for men and women seeking advice for health, psychological and sexual problems. With the advent of the social media era, users have now more possibilities to search for information about sexual health than before. Comparing the recent data of a long-standing telephone counseling service on sexual health by t...

Background: The literature lacks studies of the male sex drive. Most existing studies have focused on hypoactive sexual desire disorder in coupled heterosexual men, highlighting some of the main related biological, psychological, and social factors. Aim: To evaluate the role of selected psychological and social variables affecting male sexual de...

The most shared definition of Unconsummated Marriage (UM) refers to "the failure to perform successful sexual intercourse at the beginning of the marriage. UM usually occurs in the first few nights of marriage and so it is frequently referred to as "honeymoon impotence" or "wedding night impotence". In the Middle-Eastern (MES) and Western (WS) soci...

Introduzione ed obiettivi: Il termine “matrimonio bianco” (MB) o “matrimonio non consumato” si riferisce ad una serie di situazioni molto diverse fra loro in termini sia di durata, da poche ore ad anni, sia di eziologia, organica, psicologica, femminile, maschile o di entrambi, sia ancora di contesto sociale in cui si verifica, dalle società più li...

The role of personality traits in sexual complaints and dysfunctions is ever more evident. However, the literature is very scarce as to the possible relationships between such personality traits and specific sexual dysfunctions like ED, PE or both, their subtypes as to time of onset and severity levels. The main aim of the present study was to inve...

Objective: In the middle eastern (MES) and western (WS) societies, sexuality follows different patterns in terms of meaning and rules. Moreover the evolution of societies all around the world created new contexts and kinds of relationship. This could hamper a correct taxonomy of such sexual dysfunctions where social variables are crucial. The aim o...

Objective: To investigate the concerns and requests reported by users on extra dyadic behavior in an Italian counselling service, to point out the differences, if there are any, between male and female users, to underline what really does hurt and to describe the most frequent extra dyadic behavior given to service’s consultants. Design and Method:...

Topic: Unconsummated marriage IS “UNCONSUMMATED MARRIAGE” STILL AN APPROPRIATE TERM? A SNAPSHOT OF REALITY Silvaggi M, Michetti PM, Fabrizi A, Rossi R, Tripodi FM, Simonelli C In the middle eastern (MES) and western (WS) societies, sexuality follows different patterns in terms of meaning and rules. Moreover the evolution of societies all around...

The role of personality traits in sexual complaints and dysfunctions is more and more evident as predicted by Eysenck already in 1971 and reported by Nobre et al., 2011. More precisely, in sexual dysfunctional men, Neuroticism (N) appear negatively related to sexual function and Extraversion (E) positively related with it. However, a few of literat...

Previous studies explain that the Internet makes it possible to explore various unusual desires with little embarrassment and often with the illusion of personal security. Despite the flourishing publications on the double link between sexuality and the Internet in the last decade, there are relatively few studies analyzing the contents of online e...

Purpose of review: To analyze literature on sexual pain disorders and to review and summarize the articles published throughout 2013 which contribute to the current knowledge on this subject. Recent findings: By age 40, 7.8% of women reported vulvar pain. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, has combined vaginism...

C. (2014). Questionnaires and scales for the evaluation of the online sexual activities: A review of 20 years of research. Cyberpsychology: Abstract An increasing number of people use the Internet for Online Sexual Activities (OSA). This sexual revolution has resulted in both positive and negative aspects, enriching sexual functioning but also prov...

Objective: Help-lines are a common counseling services used by who is looking for advice on sexual problems. Despite of this, relatively few peer-reviewed reports on this subject have been published in the last years. Our aim is to analyze the requests presented by users calling the help-line of Institute of Clinical Sexology of Rome for sexual pro...

Sempre piů persone utilizzano Internet per attivitŕ sessuali online e il fenomeno č in crescente aumento. Negli ultimi anni, č inoltre emerso un importante doppio legame tra la sessualitŕ e questo nuovo strumento, dove da un lato la tecnologia ha dato un significato diverso ai comportamenti sessuali preesistenti e dall'altro la stessa sessualitŕ ha...

Background / Purpose: Alexithymia construct characterizes individuals who have difficulty in identifying or reporting their specific emotions. Researchers have found high alexithymia levels in men with different sexual problems, including sexual dysfunctions, paraphilias and infertility. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence o...

Unconsummated marriage (UM) is the failure to perform successful sexual intercourse at the beginning of the marriage. Vaginismus has been traditionally reported as the leading cause. ED is also a leading cause for UM. This appears to be a significant problem in the conservative middle-Eastern societies and in the developing countries, where couples...

Delayed Ejaculation (DE) is probably the least studied and understood of the male sexual dysfunctions (MSD). There is still little unanimity concerning its psychological/interpersonal aetiology. Previous studies found that MSD are strongly related with alexithymia, a multifaceted personality construct that describes a disturbance in the regulation...

Delayed Ejaculation (DE) is probably the least studied and understood of the male sexual dysfunctions (MSD). There is still little unanimity concerning its psychological/interpersonal aetiology. Previous studies found that MSD are strongly related with alexithymia, a multifaceted personality construct that describes a disturbance in the regulation...

Background / Purpose: The researches investigate the unusual online sexual preferences in a wide sample of Italian and Swedish university students. The study examined the association between preferences, online sexual behaviour, sexual compulsivity, and a set of socio-demographic variables. Main conclusion: Atypical online sexual preferences h...

Background / Purpose: Endometriosis is a severe gynaecological condition affecting many women in reproductive age, having bad consequences on health, wellbeing, and sexual-affective life. This study evaluates the quality of life and sexual satisfaction in an Italian group of women suffering from endometriosis. The assumption is that the disease h...

L'aumento esponenziale dell'obesitŕ costituisce un problema di salute pubblica con ricadute sia sul benessere fisico ed emotivo, sia sulla salute sessuale del soggetto obeso. Tra i disturbi dell'umore, la depressione sembra essere la patologia piů presente tra la popolazione obesa rispetto alla popolazione normopeso.

Background / Purpose: In previous research, high and/or moderate alexithymia levels were found in males with sexual dysfunctions. The aim of the present study is to investigate prevalence of alexithymia in female outpatients with sexual disorders, to evaluate the possible correlation between sexual functioning and dysregulation of emotions.73 pat...

Il desiderio di avere un figlio rappresenta un tipo di progettualitŕ multidimensionale, complessiva ed allargata per l'identitŕ individuale e di coppia. L'obiettivo della presente ricerca consiste nell'esplorare la presenza del desiderio di genitorialitŕ in un gruppo di omosessuali italiani, approfondendo le motivazioni ed il grado di riflessivitŕ...

Ces 30 dernières années, l’utilisation d’une approche intégrée entre spécialités, modèles et techniques d’intervention en sexologie a rencontré un développement remarquable au niveau international, autant dans la pratique clinique que pour la contribution au domaine de la recherche. Un point critique réside toutefois dans la formation du sexologue,...

During the past three decades, integration in sexology between specialists, models and intervention techniques has decidedly increased, both in clinical practice and in international research contributions. The training of the sexologist, a figure often not officially recognized in spite of growing client demand, is still a critical issue. This pap...

In Europe, helplines have become a common counselling service for men and women who are seeking advice for sexual problems. Despite this, relatively few peer-reviewed reports on this subject have been published in the last decade. To investigate the range of sexual concerns reported by users of an Italian helpline and to describe the differences, i...

- The alexithymia construct describes a cluster of cognitive and affective characteristics initially observed among patients with classic psychosomatic diseases and later among patients with various medical and psychiatric disorders. The salient features of the construct are: difficulty in identifying and in describing subjective feelings, difficul...

Objective This study analyses the quality of sex life and partnership in a sample of italian women affected by endometriosis verifying the hypothesis that women with endometriosis have less sexual and couple satisfaction than healthy women. Design And Method The Italian version of McCoy Female Sexuality Questionnaire (MFSQ) was administered to a to...

Objective Alexithymia is a multi-facet personality construct characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions, paucity of fantasies and externally orientated cognitive style. Recent research investigated the role of alexithymia in male sexuality finding high scores for alexithymia in patients with Erectile Dysfunction (ED) and with P...

Objective Erotic imagery is a central aspect of human sexuality and an indicator of psychological and physical wellbeing. In this study we intend to explore the nature of sexual fantasies in a sample of today male heterosexuals. Design and method Fifty male heterosexual were interviewed through a self-administred and anonymous questionnaire. The sa...

Objective Sexual behaviour in infertile patients is often impaired by several factors as psychological distress related to infertility, focus on sex for procreation and interference of medical prescriptions on sexual activity. The hypothetic role of infertility as a risk factor for sexual dissatisfaction or dysfunction was studied in 100 infertile...

La alexitimia comprende un grupo de características cognitivas y afectivas inicialmente observadas en los pacientes que presentan enfermedades psicosomáticas clásicas y posteriormente en pacientes con diversas alteraciones médicas y psiquiátricas. Los rasgos más sobresalientes son: dificultades para identificar y describir las emociones, dificultad...

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a very common disorder in women, involving severe consequences on the patients’ perception of quality of life and sexuality. The aim of this contribution is to analyze the psycho-relational aspects linked to UI, focusing on sexual activity, self-perception of sexual competence and self-esteem. Urinary incontinence cause...

This study investigates affective and sexual dimensions in partners involved as caregivers of Alzheimer dementia (AD) subjects. A negative correlation between burden of the caregiver and sexual-affective quality of life was assumed. Hundred participants with AD partner (33 male, 67 female), aged between 55 and 85 years were recruited and data were...

There is still a lack of agreement on etiology, definition, and mechanisms that underlie premature ejaculation (PE) as well as on the different role and interaction between psychological and biological factors. Alexithymia is a deficit in identifying and communicating emotions that is presumed to play an important role in psychosomatic diseases. Th...