Prevalence of paraphilic interests among adults in Egypt

Background: The Paraphilia now around the world occupy an important position in medicine. Term “paraphilia” (from the Greek “para,” meaning “beside, aside,” and “philia,” meaning “love”) is currently used in psychiatry to define “anomalous” sexual interests. Objectives: Studying prevalence of paraphilic behaviors and interests in a sample of 200 males and 200 females in the population aged from (18 – 45). Methods: Communication was done with different online groups and sites to conduct this cross sectional study. These aimed to orient them about the aim and procedures of the study and explained its benefits. Admins of these groups were helpful but refused to put the name of the groups in the work. admins collected the answered questionnaire to protect identity and privacy of respondents. This study was approved by ethical committee of the Faculty of Medicine Menoufia University. Results: The overall prevalence of paraphilic behavior experience was found 21% with prevalence significantly higher in men than women. The most common paraphilic experience was frotteurism then voyeurism followed by fetishism then pedophilia. Conclusion: It was concluded that paraphilia is not an uncommon behavior in our community. It exists in both sexes but higher among men.