Men and women who are frequent viewers of porn have equal risks of cyberporn addiction, finds a new study.

Previous psychological theories define porn addiction as a serious threat to sexual relations as porn addicts are more inclined to the virtual medium to fuel their erotic fantasies. Recent studies also hold that porn addicts are narcissists who like to take control over the entire act of cuddling under the sheets. German scientists from the Duisburg-Essen University found internet pornography is the 'new cocaine' and women, just like men are likely to become porn addicts.

The experts looked at the online pornographic dependency in 102 heterosexual women and almost half of these participants were regular porn viewers. The subjects were made to watch 100 images of sexual content to note their level of sexual appetite and hypersexual behaviors like promiscuity, too much masturbation and porn addiction.

"Results indicated internet porn users rated pornographic images as more arousing and reported greater carving due to pornographic picture presentation compared with non-users," said Matthias Brand, study author and professor at the Duisburg-Essen University, reports the Telegraph.

"Moreover craving, sexual arousal rating pictures, sensitivity to sexual excitation, problematic sexual behavior and severity of psychological symptoms predicted tendencies towards cybersex addiction in internet porn users," he adds.

However, the study observed no relation between porn addiction and participant's relationship status, number of sexual contacts and use of internet to meet prospective sexual partners. These findings strongly point at the similarity in cyberporn addiction between heterosexual men and women.

But, the authors believe their trial had a few limitations like majority of women were aged under 30. Therefore, they add the results may be related to individuals of the same age group.

More information is available online in the journals Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.