A new study has found that people who are addicted to watching porn exhibit similar traits to those suffering from drug addiction.

The study, carried out by the University of Cambridge, found that brain activity in someone who regularly watches porn is similar to the brain activity of a compulsive drug user. Red Orbit reported via The Raw Story on July 13 that the researchers from the University failed to draw anything conclusive from their research in terms of sex addiction.

The author of the study, Dr. Valerie Voon, talked about her findings:

“The patients in our trial were all people who had substantial difficulties controlling their sexual behavior and this was having significant consequences for them, affecting their lives and relationships. In many ways, they show similarities in their behavior to patients with drug addictions. We wanted to see if these similarities were reflected in brain activity, too.”

Dr, Voon also spoke to the BBC and said that although the study touched upon the tricky area of sexual behavioral disorder, she doesn’t think enough is understood at present to label the disorder an addiction:

“We don’t know if some of these effects are predispositions. meaning that if you have greater activity in these areas are you more likely to develop these behaviors or if it is an effect of the pornography itself – it’s very difficult to tell,” she said.

The study was carried out using 19 male volunteers who admitted to having an obsession with sexual thoughts and watching porn. The researchers discovered that so-called sex addicts displayed higher levels of activity in three parts of the brain: The ventral striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate and the amygdala.

These days, sex addiction is viewed as more of an excuse than anything else, especially when it is used by men in Hollywood. So, while the latest study gives some weight to theories of sexual addiction, it is by no means conclusive. The study, “Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours,” was published in the journal PLOS ONE July 11.