Yale researchers lay down strategies to reduce porn use

A study out from the Yale University may help curb pornography use, say the study's authors.

The study used an online questionnaire to garner information from 1,298 male pornography users. The goal was to see what happens when pornography is treated in the same way as an officially designated disorder.

"For some people, pornography can be destructive and maybe they need some help to reduce their behavior," said lead author Carolyn Tompsett.

"Whatever you want to call it, if it's negatively impacting their life, then they probably need some help," she added.

The researchers created an online, 21-item questionnaire.

In the questionnaire, individuals were asked whether they had tried different strategies to reduce porn usage. Strategies ranged from "record the date and the length of time you spent watching porn after each session" and "do not keep a large stash of porn available" to "use a computer only when someone else close by can see the monitor".

The 1,298 male pornography users rated their confidence from 0 to 100 percent.

Each item was a strategy participants could use to decrease their own pornography usage.

"Our questionnaire could be a useful clinical tool for patients seeking to reduce pornography use," said Shane Kraus, a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale University's school of medicine.

According to lead author Carolyn Tompsett, professor of psychology at the Bowling Green State University in the US, the fact that excessive pornography use is not categorised as a disorder does not mean it does not negatively affect people.

This questionnaire might be something that you could use to assess a patient for treatment or just for self-exploration," Kraus pointed out.

The study, set to appear in the journal Addictive Behaviors, however does not explicitly refer to pornography use as an addiction or disorder.