A new study by researchers from the University of California Los Angeles suggested that sex addiction should not be treated as a disorder.

The new brain study was published in the Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology, a scientific journal. Researchers recorded the brain responses of 39 men and 13 women to pornography. The respondents have reported they are sexually addicted and have difficulty controlling their carnal desires.

The findings suggest that neural responses were different from the responses of drug addicts when they see images of drugs.

The research study author, Dr. Nicole Prause, said the brains of the so-called sex addicts did not respond to pornographic images the way drug addicts did with drugs.

Ms. Prause said that if the study is replicated or explored more in the future, the findings would challenge the current theories of "sex addiction."

The public's perception of the concept of addiction involves doing or taking something that gives pleasure and not having control on one's desires. For most of the twentieth century, psychiatrists and even the police describe addiction in relation to substance abuse or behaviours that require increasing doses to experience a form of "high." These addictions often led to some type of dependence which may lead to symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting.

Ms. Prause and her colleagues found tolerance, unlike in drug addicts, in self-proclaimed sex addicts in the study. The subjects of the study did not find sexual cues compelling compared to other images. Ms. Prause said they just look like normal people with high sex drives. Researchers have not seen anything different in terms of neural responses.

Celebrities and famous personalities who blame their sex addiction for their behaviour like Tiger Woods, Russell Brand, Ne-Yo and Kanye West should probably know that their so-called addiction to sex is not exactly a brain disorder. Like the researchers have said, they are just like normal people with overly active sex drives.

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