If our charity were a toddler we might have our darling child show off to you what he or she has been learning, playing some music perhaps, telling a funny story or displaying some peachy dance routine. Instead, our beloved is a bit more cerebral at present, but we’re working on more creative ventures as illustrated in the image above. So if you can stand it, we’d like to present instead the fruit of our child’s labour in the form of… ahem, peer-reviewed research. Consider it as a piece of intellectual birthday cake, if you will, for your intellectual nourishment and delight.
The base of the yummy cake is Darryl Mead’s paper on “The Risks Young People Face as Porn Consumers” that has now had well over 1,000 readers. Access is split between the publishing journal Addicta and the online community Research Gate, where we are now building a presence.
The jam in the middle is part of our charitable mission: it’s the role in helping to link the findings of the behavioural-addiction research community with professionals in the therapy community. Healthcare professionals need a strong understanding of the latest science to deliver assistance to people struggling with compulsive sexual behaviours.
Our first experiment in this direction was with Pornography and Sexuality Research Papers at the 4th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions. It covers the research presented by researchers at that conference in Israel last year. Written by Darryl Mead and Mary Sharpe, it was published in Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, the Journal of Treatment and Prevention. This is the official journal of our partner organisation, the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health, where Mary Sharpe is a board member. This paper has been downloaded 167 times. If you would like to read the full paper, it is available as a free download from the publisher with this link.
Darryl and Mary are preparing a similar paper to report on the research presented at the 5th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions that we attended in Cologne, Germany in April this year.
The icing on our heady birthday cake offering is the 2016 paper co-authored by Gary Wilson, our Honorary Research Officer, with a team of US Navy Doctors. It continues to be hugely successful. The Abstract for Park et al (2016) Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports has been read over 14,000 times, the full paper has over 37,000 downloads and it is now cited in 10 other publications. And all this comes after persistent attacks on the article and its publisher by a campaigner who attempted to force the paper’s retraction. What a rotten spoilsport! However, the publisher, MDPI has remained steadfast, standing by the quality of the work. MDPI has just released a minor correction which more clearly spells out Gary Wilson’s role in our toddler’s life, a sort of favourite honorary uncle, if you will.
“Gary Wilson is the author of Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction. He holds an unremunerated, honorary position at The Reward Foundation, the Registered Scottish Charity to which his book proceeds are donated. The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.”
So happy birthday to us and I hope you’ll join us in wishing for many more happy returns! Hooray!!!!
