Effects of testosterone suppression on desire, hypersexuality, and sexual interest in children in men with pedophilic disorder

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics at baseline.

Demographic characteristics	Degarelix (n = 26)	Placebo (n = 26)
Age – yr
Median (IQR)	36 (25–39)	35 (28–47)
Range	19–54	18–66
Highest completed education – no. (%)
Primary school, 9 years	2 (8)	3 (12)
Secondary education, 12 years	12 (46)	13 (50)
Post-secondary education	12 (46)	10 (38)
Unemployed – no. (%)	12 (46)	9 (35)
Living status - no. (%)
Caregiver of child	7 (27)	12 (46)
Lives without partner	17 (65)	17 (65)
Ever lived with a partner ≥2 years	10 (38)	15 (58)
Self-reported prior criminal conviction – no. (%)
Non-contact sexual offence	4 (15)	4 (15)
Contact sexual offence	2 (8)	3(12)
Non-sexual offence	2 (8)	5 (19)
Sexuality – no. (%)
Attraction primarily to boys	4 (15)	4 (15)
Attraction primarily to girls	19 (73)	21 (81)
Attraction to boys and girls	3 (12)	1 (4)
Attraction exclusively  to prepubescent children	2 (8)	9 (35)
Age at discovery of attraction  to minors – median (IQR)	16 (14–23)	16 (13–25)

Figure 1. (A,B) Box-plot and individual trajectories of Sexual Desire Inventory and Hypersexual Behaviour Inventory scores among participants with paedophilic disorder treated with degarelix and placebo. Abbreviations: SDI: Sexual Desire Inventory (range 12–104); HBI: Hypersexual Behaviour Inventory (range 19–95). Notches of the box-plots can be used to compare groups; notch = median +/- 1.58 * IQR/sqrt(n).

Figure 2. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) on sexual measures in participants with paedophilic disorder treated with degarelix or placebo. P: placebo; D: degarelix. P week 2, P week 10, D week 2 and D week 10 depicts within-group effects of decrease compared to baseline. D vs. P week 2 and D vs. P week 10 are between-group effects of the decrease from baseline.

Table 2. Exploratory analyses of putative modifiers of effects from degarelix at ten weeks.

Modifier	Effect
	Decrease in SDI		Decrease in HBI		Reporting no attraction to minors at ten weeks^a
	Statistic	p-Value	Statistic	p-Value	p-Value
Autistic traits	r = −0.08	0.71	r = 0.26	0.22	0.81
Antisocial traits^a	-	0.84	–	0.27	1
ADHD-like traits^a	–	0.86	–	0.36	1
Age	r = −0.03	0.90	r = −0.24	0.27	0.22
Age at onset of paedophilic attraction^b	r = 0.22	0.31	0.12	0.59	0.2
Duration of paedophilic attraction^c	r = −0.07	0.75	r = −0.23	0.3	0.58

Notes:

Abbreviations: r = Spearman’s rank correlation.

^aNo test statistic is reported for Mann–Whitney U tests.

^bParticipants were asked the question ‘When did your sexual attraction to children arise?’, with the alternatives ‘Always been present/can’t remember when it started’ or ‘At a specific age; [age, e.g. ‘7’]’.

^cCalculated as: age at study inclusion minus self-reported age of onset of paedophilic attraction (e.g. 43–17 = 28).