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Open science refers to a set of practices that aim to make scientific research more transparent, accessible, and reproducible, including pre-registration of study protocols, sharing of data and materials, the use of transparent research methods, and open access publishing. In this commentary, we describe and evaluate the current state of open science practices in behavioral addiction research. We highlight the specific value of open science practices for the field; discuss recent field-specific meta-scientific reviews that show the adoption of such practices remains in its infancy; address the challenges to engaging with open science; and make recommendations for how researchers, journals, and scientific institutions can work to overcome these challenges and promote high-quality, transparently reported behavioral addiction research. By collaboratively promoting open science practices, the field can create a more sustainable and productive research environment that benefits both the scientific community and society as a whole.

Background and Aims: Despite its inclusion in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, there is a virtual paucity of high-quality scientific evidence about compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), especially in underrepresented and underserved populations. Therefore, we comprehensively examined CSBD across 42 countries, genders, and sexual orientations, and validated the original (CSBD-19) and short (CSBD-7) versions of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale to provide standardized, state-of-the-art screening tools for research and clinical practice., Method: Using data from the International Sex Survey (N = 82,243; Mage = 32.39 years, SD = 12.52), we evaluated the psychometric properties of the CSBD-19 and CSBD-7 and compared CSBD across 42 countries, three genders, eight sexual orientations, and individuals with low vs. high risk of experiencing CSBD., Results: A total of 4.8% of the participants were at high risk of experiencing CSBD. Country- and gender-based differences were observed, while no sexual-orientation-based differences were present in CSBD levels. Only 14% of individuals with CSBD have ever sought treatment for this disorder, with an additional 33% not having sought treatment because of various reasons. Both versions of the scale demonstrated excellent validity and reliability., Discussion and Conclusions: This study contributes to a better understanding of CSBD in underrepresented and underserved populations and facilitates its identification in diverse populations by providing freely accessible ICD-11-based screening tools in 26 languages. The findings may also serve as a crucial building block to stimulate research into evidence-based, culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies for CSBD that are currently missing from the literature.

Background and Aims: The World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) includes Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD), a new diagnosis that is both controversial and groundbreaking, as it is the first diagnosis to codify a disorder related to excessive, compulsive, and out-of-control sexual behavior. The inclusion of this novel diagnosis demonstrates a clear need for valid assessments of this disorder that may be quickly administered in both clinical and research settings., Design: The present work details the development of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Diagnostic Inventory (CSBD-DI) across seven samples, four languages, and five countries., Setting: In the first study, data were collected in community samples drawn from Malaysia (N = 375), the U.S. (N = 877), Hungary (N = 7,279), and Germany (N = 449). In the second study, data were collected from nationally representative samples in the U.S. (N = 1,601), Poland (N = 1,036), and Hungary (N = 473)., Findings: Across both studies and all samples, results revealed strong psychometric qualities for the 7-item CSBD-DI, demonstrating evidence of validity via correlations with key behavioral indicators and longer measures of compulsive sexual behavior. Analyses from nationally representative samples revealed residual metric invariance across languages, scalar invariance across gender, strong evidence of validity, and utility in classifying individuals who self-identified as having problematic and excessive sexual behavior, as evidenced by ROC analyses revealing suitable cutoffs for a screening instrument., Conclusion: Collectively, these findings demonstrate the cross-cultural utility of the CSBD-DI as a novel measure for CSBD and provide a brief, easily administrable instrument for screening for this novel disorder.

Background: The addiction model of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) and problematic pornography use (PPU) predicts the presence of withdrawal symptoms and increased tolerance for sexual stimuli in the disorder phenotype. However, clear empirical evidence supporting this claim has largely been lacking., Methods: In the preregistered, nationally representative survey (n = 1,541, 51.2% women, age: M = 42.99, SD = 14.38), we investigated the role of self-reported withdrawal symptoms and tolerance with respect to CSBD and PPU severity., Results: Both withdrawal and tolerance were significantly associated with the severities of CSBD (β = 0.34; P < 0.001 and β = 0.38; P < 0.001, respectively) and PPU (β = 0.24; P < 0.001 and β = 0.27; P < 0.001, respectively). Of the 21 withdrawal symptom types investigated, the most often reported symptoms were frequent sexual thoughts that were difficult to stop (for participants with CSBD: 65.2% and with PPU: 43.3%), increased overall arousal (37.9%; 29.2%), difficult to control level of sexual desire (57.6%; 31.0%), irritability (37.9%; 25.4%), frequent mood changes (33.3%; 22.6%), and sleep problems (36.4%; 24.5%)., Conclusions: Changes related to mood and general arousal noted in the current study were similar to the cluster of symptoms in a withdrawal syndrome proposed for gambling disorder and internet gaming disorder in DSM-5. The study provides preliminary evidence on an understudied topic, and present findings can have significant implications for understanding the etiology and classification of CSBD and PPU. Simultaneously, drawing conclusions about clinical importance, diagnostic utility and detailed characteristics of withdrawal symptoms and tolerance as a part of CSBD and PPU, as well as other behavioral addictions, requires further research efforts.

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) is currently defined in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse control disorder. Criteria for hypersexual disorder (HD) had been proposed in 2010 for the fifth revision of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). In this article, we compare differences between HD and CSBD and discuss their relevance.Significant differences between HD and CSBD criteria include: (1) the role of sexual behavior as a maladaptive coping and emotion regulation strategy listed in criteria for HD but not in those for CSBD; (2) different exclusionary criteria including bipolar and substance use disorders in HD but not in CSBD, and (3) inclusion of new considerations in CSBD, such as moral incongruence (as an exclusion criterion), and diminished pleasure from sexual activity. Each of these aspects has clinical and research-related implications. The inclusion of CSBD in the ICD-11 will have a significant impact on clinical practice and research. Researchers should continue to investigate core and related features of CSBD, inlcuding those not included in the current criteria, in order to provide additional insight into the disorder and to help promote clinical advances.

Background and Aims: Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) is a medical condition that can impair social and occupational functioning and lead to severe distress. To date, treatment effectiveness studies of CSBD are under-developed; typically, treatment for CSBD is based on guidelines for substance or other behavioural addictions. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) is an evidence-based treatment for substance addiction aimed at, among other things, reducing craving and negative affect-i.e. processes that are implicated in the maintenance of problematic sexual behaviours. However, to our knowledge no prior research has been published evaluating mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) in the treatment of CSBD, except two clinical case reports. Therefore, the aim of the current pilot study was to examine whether MBRP can lead to clinical improvement in CSBD. Methods: Participants were 13 adult males with a diagnosis of CSBD. Before and after the eight-week MBRP intervention, participants completed a booklet of questionnaires including measurements of porn viewing, masturbation and emotional distress. Results: As expected, we found that after MBRP participants spent significantly less time engaging in problematic pornography use and exhibited a decrease in anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Discussion and Conclusions: The findings indicate that MBRP could be beneficial for CSBD individuals. Further clinical effectiveness studies with bigger sample sizes, delayed post-training measurements and randomised control trial design are warranted. In conclusion, MBRP leads to a decrease in time spent watching porn and a decrease in emotional distress in CSBD patients.

Background and aims Previous studies examined psychological factors related to treatment seeking for problematic pornography use (PU) among males. In this study, we focused on females who seek treatment for problematic PU and compared them with non-problematic pornography users with regard to variables related to problematic PU. Second, we investigated the relationships between critical constructs related to problematic PU with the path analysis method, emphasizing the predictors for treatment seeking among women. We also compared our results with previous studies on males. Methods A survey study was conducted on 719 Polish-speaking Caucasian females, 14-63 years old, including 39 treatment seekers for problematic PU. Results The positive relationship between the mere amount of PU and treatment seeking loses its significance after introducing two other predictors of treatment-seeking: religiosity and negative symptoms associated with PU. This pattern is different from the results obtained in previous studies on males. Discussion Different from previous studies on male samples, our analysis showed that in the case of women, mere amount of PU may be related to treatment-seeking behavior even after accounting for negative symptoms associated with PU. Moreover, religiousness is a significant predictor of treatment seeking among women, which may indicate that in the case of women, treatment seeking for problematic PU is motivated not only by experienced negative symptoms of PU but also by personal beliefs about PU and social norms. Conclusion For females, negative symptoms associated with PU, the amount of PU and religiosity is associated with treatment seeking. Those factors should be considered in treatment.