Is there any brain science behind porn addiction?
Plenty! There are 38 neuroscience-based studies involving different approaches (MRI, fMRI, EEG, neuropsychological, hormonal) have explored the brain patterns of frequent pornography users. And what have they found?
Get this: Virtually every neuroscience study has found brain changes consistent with addiction. What do we mean “brain changes consistent with addiction?” Well, there are several addiction patterns that show up in any addiction – like drugs, or alcohol.
And as Gary Wilson has documented on his amazing Your Brain On Porn site, all of these show up in these brain studies on porn users. This includes:
- 18 studies documenting sensitizationor cue-reactivity
- 12 studies documenting impaired prefrontal circuits
- 6 studies documenting desensitization
But wait, aren’t there some neuroscientists who interpret the findings differently?
Not many, honestly (although you wouldn’t know by the few who are very spoken). But the truth is over sixty neuroscientists have concluded their own brain data supports pornography’s addictive potential.
Is pornography addiction a real diagnosis?
Several diagnostic codes describing compulsive sexual behavior are already available in the ICD-10 (the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, a primary diagnostic resource worldwide) and they have existed in the DSM since 1980. Chapters on the neurobiology of sex and pornography addiction are also now appearing in updated psychiatry textbooks written by and for physicians.
The ICD is the most widely used classification of mental disorders worldwide, and its diagnostic codes are mandated for use in the US and elsewhere by international treaty as opposed to DSM-5 diagnoses, which enjoy no such mandate. In the upcoming ICD-11, there is a proposed diagnosis for “Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder,” a broader term that encompasses “sex addiction.” Read more about porn desensitization here.