Investigating Executive Functions in Men Seeking Help for Hypersexual Behavior Using Neuropsychological Testing

• Main Author: Reid, Rory C.
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2010
• Subjects: hypersexual behavior; hypersexual disorder; executive functions; sex addiction; sexual compulsivity; Psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2231; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3230&context=etd

Patients seeking help for hypersexual behavior often exhibit features of impulsivity, cognitive rigidity, poor judgment, deficits in emotion regulation, and excessive preoccupation with sex. Some of these characteristics are also common among patients presenting with neurological pathology associated with executive dysfunction. These observations led to the current investigation in which differences across scores on objective neuropsychological tests of executive functioning were explored in a group of hypersexual male patients (n = 30) compared with a non-hypersexual community sample (n = 30) of men. Using multivariate statistics, differences between the groups were examined yielding significant differences on measures of hypersexuality. However, the groups failed to exhibit significant differences across neuropsychological tests of executive functioning. These results contradict a previous finding of executive deficits among hypersexual men measured by self-report. These findings are discussed as they pertain to conceptualizations of hypersexual populations and possible implications for future research.