Young believes that when enthusiasm shades into addiction, there are signs that can be diagnosed, much like those of the official so-called impulsecontroldisorders, such as gambling.
One pilot study, at the University of Minnesota, showed that MRI brain scans of people who had been diagnosed as sexually compulsive were different than those with other types of impulsecontroldisorders.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota compared eight people who had been diagnosed with hypersexuality with others who had been diagnosed with impulse-control disorders like gambling or attention deficit disorder.