Just as depression is one of the many psychological causes of erectile dysfunction, it is also one of the causes of premature ejaculation, which occurs when a man reaches orgasm and ejaculates before he wants it to happen. This lack of ability to control the timing of ejaculation not only causes distress to the man who suffers from it but to his sexual partner as well.
A South Korean study, published in the July 2011 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, evaluated 334 men for signs of PE. For purposes of standardization, researchers established a definition of presumed PE as “a short ejaculation time [five minutes or less from beginning of intercourse], an inability to control ejaculation, and the presence of distress resulting from PE.” They found that 25.4 percent of the test subjects self-diagnosed as having PE, but only 10.5 percent actually matched the study’s PE definition. Although a link was found between depression and PE for most men studied, it was particularly apparent among those who self-diagnosed PE but didn’t really have all the symptoms.