Sex Addiction as a Disease: Evidence for Assessment, Diagnosis, and Response to Critics
Abstract
The journey of addiction treatment is marked with significant societal, clinical, and scientific advances over the past few decades. Not too long ago, addiction was viewed as a moral failing and those suffering with addiction were treated harshly and with great prejudice and fear. One thing remains evident, significant change is difficult to come by is met with resistance, and it takes the perseverance and vision of a collective force of individuals to bring about the change. Addiction is one disease that has been maligned and misunderstood historically, as it presents in its myriad forms, yet clarity has emerged over the last 50 years to the recognition that it is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry, with manifestations along biological, psychological, social, and spiritual domains. The ongoing controversy over the acceptance of problem behaviors related to sex as part of addiction is very similar to the phenomenon which occurred with alcoholism and drug dependencies not that long ago however, when presented with the latest scientific advances the criticisms prove to be unfounded and outdated.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex in addiction: neuroimaging findings and clinical implications
Goldstein, R. Z., & Volkow, N. D. (2011) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn3119 · Cited by 2,749 · see citing works
Addiction Is a Brain Disease, and It Matters
Leshner, A. I. (1997) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.278.5335.45 · Cited by 1,615 · see citing works
Robinson, T. E., & Berridge, K. C. (2003) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145237 · Cited by 1,509 · see citing works
Toward a syndrome model of addiction: Multiple expressions, common etiology
Shaffer, H. J., LaPlante, D. A., LaBrie, R. A., Kidman, R. C., Donato, A. N., & Stanton, M. V. (2004) · Harvard Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/10673220490905705 · Cited by 682 · see citing works
Brand, M., Young, K. S., & Laier, C. (2014) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00375 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Leeman, R. F., & Potenza, M. N. (2012) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-011-2550-7 · Cited by 448 · see citing works
Dong, G., DeVito, E. E., Du, X., & Cui, Z. (2012) · Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.02.001 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
Internet sex addiction: A review of empirical research
Griffiths, M. D. (2012) · Addiction Research & Theory · doi:10.3109/16066359.2011.588351 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
The Emperor Has No Clothes: A Review of the ‘Pornography Addiction’ Model
Ley, D., Prause, N., & Finn, P. (2014) · Current Sexual Health Reports · doi:10.1007/s11930-014-0016-8 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
Editor's Note: The Process Addictions and the New ASAM Definition of Addiction
Smith, D. E. (2012) · Journal of Psychoactive Drugs · doi:10.1080/02791072.2012.662105 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Diagnosis and Treatment of Sexual Addiction: A Survey among German Sex Therapists
Briken, P., Habermann, N., Berner, W., & Hill, A. (2007) · Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity · doi:10.1080/10720160701310450 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Hypersexuality: A Critical Review and Introduction to the “Sexhavior Cycle”
Walton, M. T., Cantor, J. M., Bhullar, N., & Lykins, A. D. (2017) · Archives of Sexual Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10508-017-0991-8 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Is internet pornography causing sexual dysfunctions? A review with clinical reports
Park, B., Wilson, G., Berger, J., Christman, M., Reina, B., Bishop, F., Klam, W., & Doan, A. (2016) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs6030017 · Cited by 187 · see citing works
Pornography use and loneliness: a bidirectional recursive model and pilot investigation
Butler, M. H., Pereyra, S. A., Draper, T. W., Leonhardt, N. D., & Skinner, K. B. (2018) · Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy · doi:10.1080/0092623x.2017.1321601 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Coleman, E., Dickenson, J. A., Girard, A., Rider, G. N., Candelario-Pérez, L. E., Becker-Warner, R., Kovic, A. G., & Munns, R. (2018) · Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity · doi:10.1080/10720162.2018.1515050 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Impacts of Sexual Addiction on Intimate Female Partners—The State of the Art
Seyed Aghamiri, F., Luetz, J. M., & Hills, K. (2022) · Sexual Health & Compulsivity · doi:10.1080/26929953.2022.2050862 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Wilson, M., & Fischer, B. (2018) · The Arts in Psychotherapy · doi:10.1016/j.aip.2018.03.002 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Brem, M. J., Shorey, R. C., Anderson, S., & Stuart, G. L. (2018) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0748-4 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Seyed Aghamiri, F., Luetz, J. M., & Hills, K. (2025) · Sexual Health & Compulsivity · doi:10.1080/26929953.2025.2481961 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Recent studies indicate that compulsive sexual arousal may be addictive and hazardous to otherwise healthy people because it has neurological effects on the brain that are comparable to those of drugs (Love et al., 2015; Nestler, 2005; Phillips et al., 2015; Reisman, 2004; Voon et al., 2014).”
- Authors
- Phillips, B., Hajela, R., & Hilton, D. L.
- Affiliations
- American Foundation for Addiction Research (US)
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Phillips, Bonnie
- Venue
- Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2015-04-03
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 167-192
- ISSN
- 1072-0162 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5318
- OpenAlex
- W1569376191
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 6.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Keywords
- sexual addiction, disease model of addiction, brain reward system, addiction assessment, addiction diagnosis, history of addiction treatment, addiction stigma, alcoholism, drug addiction, compulsive sexual behavior
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
