Hormone treatment

• used for/focused on sex offenders
• paedophilia: deviant, erotic urges towards children
• paraphilia: abnormal sex drives that tend to include dangerous activities
• testosterone: male sex hormone, produced in the testes, increases aggression and sexual desire
• anti-androgens: substances which reduce testosterone, has the same effect as surgical castration according to Bradbury and Kaye
• anti-androgens works by either inhibiting production through pituitary gland or blocks it through our ability to use it
• cyproterone acetate (CPA): anti-androgenic, antigonadotropic and progestational effects, quickly reduces sexual drive and deviant fantasies, not available in US, side effects such as liver dysfunction and adrenal suppression
• medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA): hormone agent, decreases functioning of testosterone, breaks it down and inhibits the production of lutenising hormones, reduces sexual drives and deviant sexual fantasies, side effcts include decreased sperm production
• LHRH analogues are used to treat paraphilias and act as a pharmacological castration, exhausts the HPA
• Emory et al evaluated the use of MPA and concluded that MPA lowered the sexual interest of the patients
• strength: maletzky, studied 275 males from Oregon where 60% of offences were of sexual nature. they found that 0% of males who received MPA reoffended ou of 75, in comparison to 58.8% of those who didn't receive it
• strength: Turner et al, of the sex offenders on hormones between 26% and 75.4% showed improvements measured by reduced sexual thoughts
• weakness of Maletzky: treatment is not accessible, in Maletzky's study 41% couldn't access treatment due to limited resources, also, professional struggle to decide if offenders need the treatment, for example, in Maletzky's study 141 were not recommended to receive the treatment but 26.9% offended again, this suggests that these should have received treatment