Hypersexuality
Hypersexuality
Hypersexual behaviors are viewed by clinicians and therapists as a type of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) or obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorder, an addiction, or an impulse-control disorder. A number of authors do not acknowledge such a pathology, and instead assert that the condition merely reflects a cultural dislike of exceptional sexual behavior.
Physiology
In research involving the use of antiandrogens to reduce undesirable sexual behaviour such as hypersexuality, testosterone has been found to be necessary, but not sufficient, for sexual drive. A lack of physical closeness and forgetfulness of the recent past were proposed as other potential factors (specifically in the context of hypersexual behavior exhibited by people suffering from dementia).
Physiology
Pathogenic overactivity of the dopaminergic mesolimbic pathway in the brain—forming either psychiatrically, during mania, or pharmacologically, as a side effect of dopamine agonists, specifically D3-preferring agonists—is associated with various addictions and has been shown to result among some in overindulgent, sometimes hypersexual, behavior. HPA axis dysregulation has been associated with hypersexual disorder.
Reading List
Report Issue