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- 1 Institute for Sex Research, Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry, Center of Psychosocial Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf , Hamburg, Germany.
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- 2 MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town , Cape Town, South Africa.
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- 3 MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, University of Stellenbosch , Cape Town, South Africa.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS:
Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) will be included in ICD-11 as an impulse-control disorder. CSBD also shares clinical features with obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders (OCSDs) and behavioral addictions. There has been relatively little systematic investigation of CSBD in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the paradigmatic compulsive disorder. We aimed to determine prevalence of CSBD in OCD, and its associated sociodemographic and clinical features, including associated comorbidity, to learn more about the nature of CSBD.
METHODS:
Adult outpatients with current OCD (N = 539) participated in this study. The Structured Clinical Interview for OCSDs was used to diagnose OCSDs (Tourette’s syndrome, compulsive shopping, pathological gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, intermittent explosive disorder, self-injurious behavior, and CSBD). Prevalence rates of OCSDs in male versus female patients as well as comorbid disorders in OCD patients with and without CSBD were compared.
RESULTS:
Lifetime prevalence of CSBD was 5.6% in patients with current OCD and significantly higher in men than women. OCD patients with and without CSBD were similar in terms of age, age of onset of OCD, present OCD illness severity, as well as educational background. Lifetime prevalence rates of several mood, obsessive-compulsive, and impulse-control disorders were considerably elevated in patients with lifetime CSBD.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:
A substantive number of OCD patients suffered from CSBD. CSBD in OCD was more likely comorbid with other mood, obsessive-compulsive, and impulse-control disorders, but not with disorders due to substance use or addictive behaviors. This finding supports conceptualization of CSBD as a compulsive-impulsive disorder.
KEYWORDS: behavioral addictions; compulsive sexual behavior disorder; compulsivity; hypersexual disorder; hypersexuality; impulsivity
- PMID: 31079471
- DOI: 10.1556/2006.8.2019.23
Conclusion and future directions
In conclusion, our data indicate that prevalence rates of CSBD in OCD are comparable to those in the general population and in other diagnostic cohorts. Moreover, we found that CSBD in OCD was more likely comorbid with other impulsive, compulsive, and mood disorders, but not with behavioral- or substance-related addictions. This finding supports the conceptualization of CSBD as a compulsive–impulsive disorder. Going forward, standardized measures with sound psychometric properties are needed to assess presence and severity of CSBD. Future research should continue to consolidate the conceptualization of this disorder and to gather additional empirical data, in order to ultimately improve clinical care.
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