Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, Psychological Well-Being, and Hypersexuality in Patients With Substance Use Disorder in Iran

Hypersexual disorder is described as multiple unsuccessful attempts to control or diminish the amount of time spent on engaging in sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors in response to dysphoric mood states or stressful life events.
This study aimed at evaluating difficulties in the regulation of emotion, psychological well-being, and socio-economic status in explaining the dimensions of hypersexuality in patients with substance use disorder.
The data presented here was obtained from a total of 285 individuals with substance use disorders, who were selected via a multi-cluster sampling method from residential treatment centers of drug abuse in the city of Tabriz, Iran, during years 2015 to 2016. Instruments used for collecting the required data were Hypersexual Behavior Inventory (HBI), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) as well as the Ryff Scale of Psychological Well-Being (RSPWB).
Findings showed there were significant relationships between hyper sexuality and difficulties in emotion regulation (r = 0.44, P Results of this study provided sufficient evidence to support this model to explain the behavior of hypersexuality in individuals with substance use disorder and clinical practice could be based on this evidence. Specific treatment programs for people with addiction should be designed to prevent problems associated with relapse.