Gerontophilia is a paraphilia in which the sexual preference typically centers on the old and enfeebled. Paraphilias are those sexual behavior patterns in which sexual gratification rests on unusual items, situations or customs, in the absence of which the individual may not be able to attain orgasm.

In Gerontophilia, old people are usually the focus of sexual attraction. It may lead an in individual with this disorder to make sadistic attacks on the elderly. Chronophlilia is a rare term often used in association with this paraphilia. This was coined by John Money and refers to a group of paraphilias in which in sexuoerotic age is discordant with his/her chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner.

Treatment:

One of the most prominent problems in the treatment of this disorder is that most gerontophiles do not seek professional treatment for the condition, but rather receive it only when they have been caught in the act or on request of their sexual partner. Thus, their motivations for change may often stem from a desire to do it for someone else rather than from a genuine desire to change.

Treatments that combine cognitive and behavioral elements have been moderately successful in effecting changes in deviant arousal and behavior patterns of fetishists. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that these treatments can result in significantly reduced rates of recidivism than seen in untreated individuals.

Another key component of treatment involves techniques commonly known as aversion therapy— aversive conditioning to deviant sexual fantasies. Although early treatments tended to use electric shock as the unconditioned stimulus, in the past 15 years greater success has been found using assisted covert sensitization which involves having the patient imagine a deviant sexual arousal scene. At the point where arousal is high, the patient imagines aversive consequences and a foul odor is introduced via an open vial or an automated odor pump to help condition a real aversion to these deviant scenes.