Sex addiction as a mental health diagnosis: Coming together or coming apart?

Abstract

Summary The clinical literature on the phenomenon of out of control sexual behavior has been described in various ways including: a compulsion, impulsive disorder, or an addiction. Although sexual addiction is the terminology that has been most accepted by the general public, researchers and clinicians still debate about the nature of out-of-control sexual behaviors and what to name it. There was an unsuccessful effort to add “Hypersexual Disorder” to the appendix (not the main list of official diagnoses) of the DSM-5. This article addresses the controversy within the mental health community and among researchers that has stifled progress. Thousands of clients seek treatment because of the insufferable consequences of their uncontrollable sexual behaviors. Mental health providers are desperate for clear symptom descriptors and diagnostic guidelines to establish treatment modalities that are empirically based. Until such time, clinicians will do their best to treat clients who suffer from a disorder that has neither a name nor an established diagnosis.