Dipendenza da sesso

Abstract

Introduction Hypersexual disorders are characterized by clinically excessive sexual thoughts and behaviors. The common denominators of this group of disorders are acts that: 1) are directly related to sexuality, 2) that are implemented compulsively, 3) that continue despite the adverse consequences they provoke. The scientific community is working to establish diagnostic criteria for these disorders and to identify their nuclear elements. There is a proposal to insert these nonparaphilic sexual behaviors in the DSM V, under the term hypersexual disorder. In this article we provide an overview of the contemporary debate on the hypersexual disorders, with particular emphasis on the sexual addiction model, which is one of the models used in the study and treatment of these disorders. We also provide a guide that will help clinicians to recognize these disorders in the presence of certain clinical and socio-relational factors and a brief discussion of some of the possible therapeutic interventions (not only pharmacological). Materials and methods The survey is based on a search of the English language literature indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed (last access February 2010) with the following search terms: hypersexuality, hypersexual disorder, sexual addiction, sexually compulsive behavior, cybersex. Additional publications were identified from the reference lists of the retrieved publications and from those in textbook chapters.