Le nuove dipendenze sessuali

At the present time, besides classical dependencies like alcohol, drugs, etc., new types of behaviour characterised by a dysfunctional use and/or abuse of social accepted activities like sex, the use of the Web, relationships, shopping and games of chance. For the majority of the people these activities are an integrated part of a normal daily life, but for some individuals these activities could assume pathological characteristics and be the cause of mechanisms of addiction and they could have heavy consequences on one’s life. The main objective of the present paper is to examine these new addictions thoroughly, by highlighting the characteristics of these new compulsive pathologies and the main and distinctive features of the most widespread, that is to say sexual addiction, cybersex addiction, affective addiction, shopping addiction (compulsive shopping) and game of chance addiction (pathological game of chance addiction). It has been often highlighted that these new addiction cause healthy, psychological and social life disorders, such as the loss of self control, compulsiveness and inclination in repeating the action, alteration of consciousness and lack of sense of the reality. It is therefore necessary to improve our knowledge of this new phenomenon and encourage the development of effective interventions. Key words: new addictions, addictive behavior disorders, compulsiveness, loss of self-control.;

Veronica Vizzari, Margherita Napoli, Luisa Garofalo, Francesca Guida, Valentina Barbaro, Le nuove dipendenze sessuali in "RIVISTA DI SESSUOLOGIA CLINICA" 2/2006, pp 47-72, DOI: