ArticleEuropean archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience2025
What Chemsex does to the brain - neural correlates (ERP) regarding decision making, impulsivity and hypersexuality.
Article in European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Interest in Long-Acting PrEP by Methamphetamine Use Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Four Western US Cities.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Addictive disorders and correlates in the context of chemsex practices: A French online survey.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Chemsex as a Diagnostic Challenge: Toward Recognition in ICD-12 and Integrated Treatment Approaches-A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Mental Health and Drug Use Patterns Among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) Engaging in Chemsex in the UK.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neurocognitive challenges Post-COVID: current perspectives and future solutions.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Article
- A contextual behavioral model of chemsex: structural equation modeling of psychological predictors of hypersexuality and drug use.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Chem-Sex Inventory Scale (CSI): A Tool to Assess the Mental Health Risk of Chemsex Behaviors in Men Who Have Sex with Men.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chemsex describes the use of specific substances (methamphetamine, GHB/GBL, mephedrone, ketamine) which initiate or enhance sexual experiences and is mainly prevalent among men who have sex with men. Many Chemsex users experience somatic complications (for example sexually transmitted diseases) and sometimes adverse sociological, psychological, and neurological symptoms, such as depression, impulse control disorders or hypersexuality. Changes in impulsivity and deficits in executive functions have demonstrated to be associated with addiction and impulse control disorders as well as frontal brain dysfunction and behavioral control deficits. This study aims to explore the effects of neurophysiological correlates of inhibition and decision making in Chemsex users with an EEG paradigm using event-related potentials (N2, P3). 15 Chemsex users and 14 matched control subjects, all of them men who have sex with man, participated in an auditory Go/NoGo/Voluntary Selection EEG paradigm. In addition, clinical data (e.g. regarding depression), demographic information as well as measures of well-being and sexual behavior were collected. The results demonstrated that clinical symptoms, hypersexuality, and sexual risk behavior were more pronounced in Chemsex users compared to non-users. P3 amplitudes did not differ significantly between groups. However, the Chemsex users showed decreased electrophysiological N2 responses in fronto-central brain regions during decision-making, indicating compromised executive function and inhibitory control. The observed impairments may lead to increased risk behavior regarding drug abuse and hypersexuality. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms can contribute to targeted interventions in order to mitigate the negative consequences of engaging in Chemsex and improve general well-being.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.