Unlike compulsive gambling, which also is proposed for addition to the new DSM (to be called DSM-5), the proposed diagnosis — hypersexual disorder — stops short of categorizing the problem as an addiction, and for a reason.

“If we are looking at a disorder, it’s not clear what that disorder is,” said Michael Miner, a professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota who advised the DSM-5 committee on sexual disorders. “There is not an agreed-upon name. The research is in its infancy.”