Sex addiction: Is it a disease?

Research has measured the brain's response to sexual images in people who had declared hypersexuality they have problems. Unlike what many expected, the result showed that sex addiction is not a disease but is associated with a high level of desire.

Having sexual desires several times a day is not a problem . It is totally normal experience symptoms and is common in sometimes that desire increases more than usual. But if you  loved one lose control when they fail to meet that desire, or if the thought of sex affects your daily life, work, relationships and even your health. It is what many call a "sex addiction" or hypersexuality nymphomania .

Why this addiction occurs or if it is similar to other addictions like drugs. And one way to distinguish whether it is a medical problem or just a high sex drive could be determined by measuring the brain's response to stimuli that generate images of sexual content in people who recognize they have sexual problems.

Researchers at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States, managed to measure the performance of the brain in oversexed people, that is, those who have trouble controlling when they see sexual images. They have determined that the brain's response in such cases was not related to the severity of his hypersexuality.

According to the researchers, if any sex addiction, the brain's response to visual sexual stimuli should be much higher, similar to experiencing the brains of addicted to cocaine seeing images of drugs, as he has been shown in several studies.

To reach these results, which were published in the specializing Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology , the researchers tested 52 volunteers, 39 men and 13 women, 18 to 39 years old, who had reported having trouble controlling when looking at some pictures sex.

The researchers asked participants to complete four questionnaires on different topics, such as sexual behavior, sexual desire, sexual compulsions and possible negative consequences that have been the result of those behaviors. The results were very similar to those classified as sex addicts.

The researchers then made them electroencephalogram (EEG) participants while they watched a series of photographs that were selected to evoke pleasant or unpleasant sensations, including dismembered bodies, people cooking or skiing and, of course, sex scenes, some romantic and other sexually explicit.

An EEG is a noninvasive technique that measures brain waves, ie, the electrical activity generated by neurons when they communicate with each other. Specifically, the researchers measured brain responses that are the direct result of a specific cognitive event.

What was that? Detect something known as a response P300 , which is the response of the brain 300 milliseconds after each image appears and is used as a basic measure in studies of international neuroscience. Specifically, it is considered that the answer P300 is higher when a person realizes something new or have a special interest to her.

In this sense, the researchers expected that the answers P300 to sexual images were greater, so that will be associated with hypersexuality. However, the results showed no such association.

Thus, the results seem to agree with the fact that the American Psychiatric Association has excluded sex addiction as a disorder of the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), a guide which classifies mental disorders and establishes diagnoses and associated with certain codes.

This does not imply that people who have problems in their daily lives due to sex - related impulses they can not control do not need help. On the contrary, it provides new information for specialists to rethink and improve existing treatments. If you think you or someone you love have excessive or compulsive sexual behavior, be sure to seek advice from a qualified professional.