Sex Addiction, Is it Real?

Sex addiction may not be a thing after all, a new study published in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology suggests.

Controversy over whether the condition some mental health experts call "hypersexuality," or sexual "addiction," actually exists was highlighted recently when it failed to make the cut in the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5.

In order to shed some light on the situation, a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to measure how the brain behaves in those who felt they struggle due to hypersexuality.

In all, 52 volunteers took part, including 39 men and 13 women ranging from 18 to 39 years old, all of whom reported problems controlling their viewing of sexual images.

First, the participants filled out four questionnaires on various topics, such as sexual behaviors and desire as well as sexual compulsions and possible negative outcomes as a result. A score was issued based on their responses that, the researchers explained in a press release, "were comparable to individuals seeking help for hypersexual problems."

Next, the researchers monitored the volunteers' brain waves while viewing a number of images.

"The volunteers were shown a set of photographs that were carefully chosen to evoke pleasant or unpleasant feelings," said senior author Nicole Prause, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "The pictures included images of dismembered bodies, people preparing food, people skiing -- and, of course, sex. Some of the sexual images were romantic images, while others showed explicit intercourse between one man and one woman."

Specifically, the researchers were most interested in the P300 response, or the brain's response 300 milliseconds after stimulus. As something of a basic measurement in neuroscience, it has been used in the past to identify addiction as higher levels appear when a person's interest is piqued -- for example, when a drug addict is shown a picture of drugs.

Much to their surprise, the researchers did not find that spikes or decreases were tied in any way to the severity of participants' hypersexuality.

"In other words," Prause said, "hypersexuality does not appear to explain brain responses to sexual images any more than just having a high libido."

The study is far from the last word on the subject, and certainly has its critics.

Rory Reid, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry is one that has issued a word of caution regarding the report.

Having published a study just last year that suggested that the current criteria for a hypersexual disorder qualify it for psychiatric diagnosis, Reid argues that Prause's study isn't enough to discredit the possibility of a brain disorder, according to TIME magazine.

However, should the new study be replicated, Prause believes that the findings "would represent a major challenge to existing theories of a sex 'addiction," though, as she told the magazine, nor does she think those who struggle with it -- whatever it is -- are necessarily "faking or just being jerks."

Rather, she suggests it simply may fall under another category than "addiction."