INTRODUCTION: A condition in which individuals engage in some form of sexual behavior in a pattern that fits the definition of an addictive disorder can be considered as sexual addiction. This article describes the aspects of adaptation, validation and reliability of a 25-item instrument devised by Carnes in 1989 to detect cases of sexual addiction in the US. METHOD: To a sample of 71 subjects, 33 patients and 38 volunteers, was administered the screening scale and applied the provisional diagnostic criteria for Sexual Addiction according to DSM IV. RESULTS: The adapted version of the scale to be used in Brazil performed better in identifying potential cases at a cut-off score of 6 (sensibility = 0.83; specificity = 0.75). Internal consistency of the instrument measured by the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89. CONCLUSION: The use of this instrument in a cultural setting other than the one it was developed for required an in-depth study of its psychometric properties.
Sexual behavior; Addiction; Validation; Reliability; Scales
