Dr. Debra Soh on health: what the evidence says · JRE #1520

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

Soh claimed there is no evidence that pornography addiction exists. The scientific and clinical picture is more mixed than that framing suggests. The World Health Organization's ICD-11, effective 2022, added "Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder" as an official diagnosis, but deliberately classified it as an impulse-control disorder rather than a behavioral addiction, reflecting genuine disagreement among researchers over whether the addiction model best fits the condition. A 2023 systematic review of 20 studies applying DSM-5 substance-use-disorder criteria to problematic pornography and sexual behavior found that features such as craving, loss of control, and negative life consequences were highly prevalent among affected individuals, evidence that runs counter to a "no evidence" claim. At the same time, "pornography addiction" is not a formal DSM-5 diagnosis, and researchers remain divided on whether compulsive use reflects a true addictive process, a different clinical mechanism, or is better understood outside a disease framework altogether. Current status: the claim of "no evidence" overstates the case; the more accurate description is that the existence and mechanism of pornography addiction remain scientifically contested, with evidence on both sides rather than an absence of evidence.