Sexual Addiction, Hypersexual Behavior and Relative Psychological Dynamics during the Period of Social Distancing and Stay-at-Home Policies Due to COVID-19

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased stress factors affected people’s motivations to engage in potentially addictive behaviors. Sexuality, understood as one of the psychological aspects to be investigated to explore the level of psychological well-being of a person, has suffered considerable repercussions due to the pandemic. A growing body of evidence suggests an unprecedented increase in Internet use and online pornography consumption during the pandemic. Since March 2020, during the lockdown period, Pornhub has seen a worldwide increase in pornography use of 11.6% compared to the previous average days. This research was conducted with the aim of exploring the possible increasing use of pornographic material during the lockdown period, in order to assess whether dysfunctional behaviors, such as compulsive behaviors, and thoughts of sex-related obsessives can lead to hypersexual behavior or a more severe Sexual Addiction. The individuals who participated in our research were 18 years of age or older (mean 23.1, s.d. 5.8), and 48% male and 52% females and were recruited online to complete a self-report questionnaire in the period between April 2020 and April 2021. The questionnaires were delivered via main social networks. The tool used for our survey was the SAST (Sexual Addiction Screening Test), a questionnaire including socio-demographic data and data relating to sexual practices, such as sexual orientation and time spent on the Internet for sexual activities. The results revealed significant differences concerning the various factors investigated such as loss of control, addictive symptoms and hide score.

Psychosocial Life Aspects among Substance Misuse Clients who are at Rehabilitation Phase: A Narrative Review

“…The results of the study revealed that there is a constant and increasing development of using the technological means in the field of psychotherapy as mobile health and applications were reported to be successful approaches for the implementation of psychotherapy, especially with smoking addiction. In another study by Caponnetto et al, 51 the researchers adopted the cross-sectional approach to explore the psychological dynamics of hyper sexuality during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly social distancing and quarantine period. The study sample consisted of 1401 adults were recruited through the online questionnaire used in this study.…”

The Concept of “Hypersexuality” in the Boundary between Physiological and Pathological Sexuality

“…Although not yet definitively validated by significant scientific research, scholars have also theorised the involvement in the aetiology of hypersexuality of the neurotransmitter serotonergic, a neuronal hormone that makes people experience feelings of happiness, satiety, and fulfilment. The same reasoning must also be applied to oxytocin [42], which is directly involved in social and affective relationships and for which there are still no in-depth studies that may or may not explain the role of oxytocin in hypersexuality [43,44].…”

How the Rise of Problematic Pornography Consumption and the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Led to a Decrease in Physical Sexual Interactions and Relationships and an Increase in Addictive Behaviors and Cluster B Personality Traits: A Meta-Analysis

“…[39] 2021 351 Increase depression and anxiety during COVID19 with no changes in partnered sexual activity. Showing the data extracted for part B of our analysis, to determine if COVID-19 impacted the increase in pornography consumption, and if so, how that affected physical sexual relationships [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”