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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO381

Swipe, match, repeat: how do dating apps shape compulsive sexual behaviour?

SWIPE, MATCH, REPEAT: HOW ARE DATING APPS SHAPING COMPULSIVE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR?

Dating apps may function as digital systems that reinforce maladaptive sexual behaviours in susceptible users through intermittent reinforcement and reward mechanisms.

The aim of this review is to examine the relationship between dating application (DA) use and patterns of dysregulated sexual behaviour, map the neurobiological and social mechanisms linking app use to compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD), and identify population-specific risk factors, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). A narrative review was conducted using the PubMed and Scopus databases, restricted to the past ten years and prioritising meta-analyses and systematic reviews. These geosocial networking applications (GNAs), which have reached more than 300 million users worldwide, resemble problematic smartphone use in their interaction patterns, such as swiping, scrolling through feeds and matching; they function as systems of social validation and may activate dopaminergic reward pathways through intermittent reinforcement. Users were reported to be predominantly young, male and non-heterosexual; GNA use among MSM was reported to reach 26.4% and to be associated with lower well-being, greater isolation and poorer sleep quality. GNA use was found to be independently associated with CSBD (OR 1.62), and sexual sensation seeking was noted as a potential factor strengthening the link between app use, risky sexual behaviour and CSBD severity; the motivation to seek sexual partners was associated with more intensive app use, greater sexual permissiveness and problematic use. Constant availability and validation seeking may reduce inhibitory control, facilitating repetitive and impulsive sexual behaviours, while compulsive sexual behaviour is associated with changes in reward processing, sensitisation and impulse control networks, similar to those observed in behavioural addictions. Limitations included the largely cross-sectional nature of the data and the inability to establish causality, the lack of validated CSBD scales aligned with ICD-11, and the concentration of research on MSM samples; the boundary between normative and pathological use remains unclear.

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