Paraphilia in Iraq, a general sketch : a study in the sex clinic, at al-Rashad Teaching Mental Hospital

Background; paraphilias were studied in the sex clinic, at Al-Rashad teaching mental hospital, in the years 2009-2010, a subject never touched before in the field of psychiatry in Iraq. Aims of the study : 1-to identify the prevalence of types and number of paraphilias in those patients. 2-to study the relationship of paraphilias with sociodemographic factors of the patients. Patients and methods; using the diagnostic criteria of DSM IV TR, 52 patients from the outpatient sex clinic at Al-Rashad mental hospital, collected and studied (41 males and 11 females). Results; the ratio of men to women was 3.7 : 1, the majority of our sample was in the age range of 21-30 years (36.35%), with a limited(primary education)( about 48%) or no education(36.53%), not married as a status was found in 48.07%, and low socio-economic level was in 57.69% of our sample. Exhibitionism was found in 19.23% of our sample, followed by zoophilia in males 17.07%, most of the disorders were found exclusively in males, apart from masochism and some of the paraphilias not otherwise specified (NOS). Conclusion; paraphilia as a group of disorders, exist in our society, but lurks in the shadows of our strict cultural and religious societal background, they are suppressed and stigmatized, for the majority of our patients were collected first in a private clinic, then directed and encouraged to the sex clinic by the researchers