Addiction Rehab: [Does Really Sex Addiction Exist?].
[Does really sex addiction exist?].
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Adicciones. 2012; 24(4): 281-5
Echeburúa E
Hypersexual Disorder has been proposed as a new psychiatric disorder for DSM-V, characterized by an increased frecuency and intensity of sexually motivated fantasies, arousal, urges, and enacted behavior in association with an impulsivity component. Excesssive appetitive and consummatory behaviors, including hypersexuality, can become a non-chemical addiction. Sexual addiction afflicts people having paraphilic or nonparaphilic behaviors associated with progressive risk-taking sexual behaviors, escalation or progression of sexual behaviors (tolerance), loss of control and significant adverse psychosocial consequences, such as unplanned pregnancy, pair-bond dysfunction, marital separation, financial problems and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. The most common behaviors involved in sexual addiction are fantasy sex, compulsive masturbation, pornography, cybersex, voyeuristic sex, anonymous sex and multiple sexual partners. These behaviors are intended to reduce anxiety and other dysphoric affects (e.g., shame and depression). Axis I psychiatric diagnosis, especially mood disorders, psychoactive substance abuse disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, are common comorbid disorders with sexual addiction. There are significant gaps in the current scientific knowledge base regarding the clinical course, development risk factors and family history and data on women with sexual addiction are lacking.
HubMed – addiction
Human ecstasy (MDMA) polydrug users have altered brain activation during semantic processing.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Dec 16;
Watkins TJ, Raj V, Lee J, Dietrich MS, Cao A, Blackford JU, Salomon RM, Park S, Benningfield MM, Di Iorio CR, Cowan RL
RATIONALE: Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA]) polydrug users have verbal memory performance that is statistically significantly lower than that of control subjects. Studies have correlated long-term MDMA use with altered brain activation in regions that play a role in verbal memory. OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to examine the association of lifetime ecstasy use with semantic memory performance and brain activation in ecstasy polydrug users. METHODS: A total of 23 abstinent ecstasy polydrug users (age?=?24.57 years) and 11 controls (age?=?22.36 years) performed a two-part functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) semantic encoding and recognition task. To isolate brain regions activated during each semantic task, we created statistical activation maps in which brain activation was greater for word stimuli than for non-word stimuli (corrected p?0.05). RESULTS: During the encoding phase, ecstasy polydrug users had greater activation during semantic encoding bilaterally in language processing regions, including Brodmann areas 7, 39, and 40. Of this bilateral activation, signal intensity with a peak T in the right superior parietal lobe was correlated with lifetime ecstasy use (r (s)?=?0.43, p?=?0.042). Behavioral performance did not differ between groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that ecstasy polydrug users have increased brain activation during semantic processing. This increase in brain activation in the absence of behavioral deficits suggests that ecstasy polydrug users have reduced cortical efficiency during semantic encoding, possibly secondary to MDMA-induced 5-HT neurotoxicity. Although pre-existing differences cannot be ruled out, this suggests the possibility of a compensatory mechanism allowing ecstasy polydrug users to perform equivalently to controls, providing additional support for an association of altered cerebral neurophysiology with MDMA exposure. HubMed – addiction
Nicotine vapor inhalation escalates nicotine self-administration.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Addict Biol. 2012 Dec 14;
Gilpin NW, Whitaker AM, Baynes B, Abdel AY, Weil MT, George O
Humans escalate their cigarette smoking over time, and a major obstacle in the field of pre-clinical nicotine addiction research has been the inability to produce escalated nicotine self-administration in rats. In experiment 1, male Wistar rats were trained to respond for nicotine in 2-hour operant sessions, then exposed to chronic intermittent (12 hours/day) nicotine vapor and repeatedly tested for nicotine self-administration at 8-12 hours of withdrawal. Rats were tested intermittently on days 1, 3 and 5 of the vapor exposure procedure, then tested with nicotine vapor exposure on 6-15 consecutive days. Rats exhibited transient increases in operant nicotine responding during intermittent testing, regardless of vapor condition, and this responding returned to baseline levels upon resumption of consecutive-days testing (i.e. nicotine deprivation effect). Nicotine vapor-exposed rats then escalated nicotine self-administration relative to both their own baseline (?200% increase) and non-dependent controls (?3× higher). In experiment 2, rats were exposed or not exposed to chronic intermittent nicotine vapor, then tested for spontaneous and precipitated somatic signs of nicotine withdrawal. Eight hours following removal from nicotine vapor, rats exhibited robust mecamylamine-precipitated somatic signs of withdrawal. There was a strong correlation between nicotine flow rate and air-nicotine concentration, and the air-nicotine concentrations used in experiments 1 and 2 resemble concentrations experienced by human smokers. Collectively, these results suggest that chronic intermittent nicotine vapor inhalation produces somatic and motivational signs of nicotine dependence, the latter of which is evidenced by escalation of nicotine self-administration.
HubMed – addiction
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