Evaluating the Effectiveness of Short-term Clinical Guideline to Treat Sexual Addiction Disorder in People With Sexual Addiction: A Clinical Trial

Objectives Sex addiction is one type of behavioral addiction that is characterized by extreme fantasies and hard-to-control sexual behaviors. This disorder causes problems in the lives of affected people and their victims. The treatment is non-pharmacological and psychological, which are time-consuming and expensive. Short-term interventions are one of the ways to help these people. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term clinical guidelines to treat sexual addiction disorder in affected individuals. Methods This was a randomized clinical trial study with pre-test-post-test and follow-up. The studied population in this research included all people with sexual addiction disorder who live in Isfahan City, Iran. The statistical population was those who had the chance to be included in the study. These were individuals who were referred to outpatient and residential drug abuse treatment centers, psychiatric treatment centers, and sexual disorders treatment clinics. Using the balance block randomization method, 30 male subjects who were diagnosed with sex addiction disorder based on the cut-off point of the hypersexual behavior inventory (HBI) with a score of 53 and above were randomly divided into 2 intervention and comparison groups. The intervention group received ten 120-min therapy sessions held weekly. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the treatment sessions had to be held virtually (Skype). The comparison group was put on hold so that they could benefit from the treatment if the guide was effective. Both groups completed the HBI three times. The first time was immediately before the treatment, the second time immediately after the intervention, and the third time 3 months later in the follow-up phase. The results were analyzed via repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) in the SPSS software, v. 22. Results In the present study, there were 30 patients with a sexual addiction disorder, of which 15 were in the intervention group and 15 were in the comparison group (the Mean age of the participants was 26.4 years). The Mean scores of HBI in the intervention group in the pretest, post-test, and follow-up stages were 67, 49, and 57, respectively, while the mean scores of HBI in the comparison group were 64, 60, and 59 for the pretest, post-test, and the follow-up, respectively. Repeated measurement findings showed that this clinical guideline is effective in reducing participants’ sexual addiction symptoms (P‌<‌0.01).  Conclusion Clinical guideline for short-term treatment of sexual addiction disorder is effective in reducing the symptoms of sexual addiction disorder. Using this method, which can be held online, and considering its short time and reduced cost of treatment, allows more people to benefit from it.