Spotlight on Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder: A Systematic Review of Research on Women.

World Health Organization recently included compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) to the upcoming 11th edition of International Classification of Diseases (6C72). Despite the potential benefits of this decision (eg, the acceleration of research in the field will allow the development of effective treatments), previous research focused mainly on men, and as a result, we do not have an accurate clinical picture of compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) among women. Therefore, in this systematic review, we aim to present available knowledge on this topical subject. Literature search was conducted in the guideline of PRISMA methodology. Studies were identified from multiple databases including Academic Search Ultimate, SocINDEX, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, PubMed, and MEDLINE. Out of a total of 10,531 articles identified and screened, 58 were included in this review. Included studies covered the following topics: prevalence and etiology of CSB, behavioral and cognitive processes involved, comorbidities, personality traits, psychosocial and interpersonal difficulties, traumatic experiences, and treatments. Available studies indicate that CSB symptom severity is lower in women than in men. Overall, women reported consuming pornography less often than men and exhibit lower rates of feeling urges to these materials. CSB symptoms (including problematic pornography use) have been found to be positively related to trait psychopathy, impulsivity, sensation seeking, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, obsessive-compulsive disorder, pathological buying, sexual dysfunctions, general psychopathology, child sexual abuse, while negatively related to dispositional mindfulness. Conclusions that can be drawn from prior studies are considerably limited. There are no accurate estimates of the CSB prevalence or severity among women, and studies have been mostly conducted on non-clinical populations, which has limited application for women diagnosed with CSBD.

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© 2020 Kowalewska et al.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Prof. Dr. Michal Lew-Starowicz reports grants from European Society for Sexual Medicine, non-financial support from Lundbeck, outside the submitted work; and received honoraria for lectures from Angelini SpA, Aurovitas-Apotex, MCO International SRL, Mylan Healthcare, Lundbeck, Sanofi and Servier. He also receives advisory board honoraria from Novo Nordisk. Travel/meeting expenses and writing support received from CREMS SLR. These activities were not related to the research or clinical activity related to the topic of the manuscript. In the preparation of this manuscript, Ewelina Kowalewska and Michal Lew-Starowicz were financially supported by the Centre of Medical Postgraduate Education (statutory funding, the program no 501-1-065-38-19), and Ewelina Kowalewska was supported by Polish National Science Centre, PRELUDIUM grant number 2017/27/N/HS6/02079. Mateusz Gola was supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange grant PPN/BEK/2019/1/00245. The authors declare that they have no other conflicts of interest.