Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston conducted a study that finds tanning habits result from a type of addiction. The study criteria was based on methods used to evaluate alcoholism and drug dependency.

UTMB Professor Richard Wagner, senior author of the study, and his colleagues asked 145 Galveston beachgoers a series of questions such as, "Do you try to cut down on the time you spend in the sun, but find yourself still suntanning?"

The team based their questions on diagnostic criteria for substance-related disorders from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Based on the criteria, the study finds that 53-percent of the beachgoers interviewed were classified as "ultraviolet light tanning dependent."

According to Wagner, the study's findings shed light on the ineffectiveness of educational interventions on tanning.

The study appears in the current online issue of the Archives of Dermatology