Sexual Addiction

Sexual addiction is a state characterized by compulsive participation or engagement in sexual activity, particularly sexual intercourse, despite negative consequences; the concept is contentious and is not a clinical diagnosis in either the DSM or ICD, the latter instead classifying such behaviors as part of compulsive sexual behavior disorder. Considerable debate exists among psychiatrists, psychologists and sexologists over whether compulsive sexual behavior constitutes a behavioral addiction, and animal research has found that compulsive sexual behavior arises from the same transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms that mediate drug addiction in laboratory animals, though some argue applying addiction concepts to normal human sexuality can pathologize ordinary behavior and cause harm.