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Sleep-Related Painful Erections in a Patient With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

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Abstract

Sleep-related painful erection (SRPE) is a rare sleep disorder characterized by recurrent, painful penile erections occurring when awakening from rapid eye movement sleep, while erections are painless during wakefulness. Almost 35 cases have been reported worldwide, and only two of them had an associated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). We report a new case of a 61-year-old man suffering from SRPE associated with OSAS. The adequate treatment of respiratory events with continuous positive airway pressure did not alleviate the SRPE symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness. The SRPE diagnosis was made by polysomnography coupled with video surveillance when the patient was referred to the sleep laboratory for residual excessive daytime sleepiness. The patient had 2–4 episodes of SRPE/night. Beta-blocker did not alleviate the SRPE, but a transient improvement was noted when the patient was treated with paroxetine. In contrast with the two previously published cases of SRPE plus OSAS, continuous positive airway treatment did not improve SRPE symptoms in our patient.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastroenterology Department, Faculty of Medicine, F.S.I. Hospital (Interior Security Forces Teaching Hospital), University of Tunis El-Manar, Rue Taher Ben Achour, 2070, Marsa, Tunisia

    Maher Abouda, Taieb Jomni, Ferdaws Yangui & Mohamed Ridha Charfi

  2. Sleep Disorders Unit, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Centre de Recherche de l’Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Pierre and Marie Curie University, UMR_S 975-CNRS UMR 722, Paris, France

    Isabelle Arnulf

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  1. Maher Abouda
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  2. Taieb Jomni
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  3. Ferdaws Yangui
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  4. Mohamed Ridha Charfi
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  5. Isabelle Arnulf
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Correspondence to Maher Abouda.

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Abouda, M., Jomni, T., Yangui, F. et al. Sleep-Related Painful Erections in a Patient With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. Arch Sex Behav 45, 241–245 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0615-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0615-0

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