Tiger Woods remains in the news, and so does speculation that he suffers from sex addiction.

But is there any such thing? Couldn’t you lay that accusation at the feet of any randy college sophomore, predatory female “cougar” or aging lothario — up to and including 83-year-old Hugh Hefner?

“It’s absolutely a legitimate disorder,” says Dr. William Samek, director of the Florida Sexual Abuse Treatment Program in South Miami. “I’ve diagnosed and treated many people with it.”

Sexual addiction can have many causes, says Dr. Eva Ritvo, vice chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“One is a narcissism disorder. The idea that ‘the rules don’t apply to me.’ We see that a lot with celebrities and politicians. They believe they’re special,” she says,

Both experts stressed that they were speaking in general, not trying to diagnose Woods, whom they’ve never met.

In his Feb. 19 public statement, Woods said, “I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply.”

Samek notes that, “at its core, sexual addiction is not sexual. It’s related to other things — power, the desire for acceptance and love, sometimes control or anger, even low self-esteem.”

Even people who seem popular, successful and powerful can secretly have low self-esteem, he said.

There is no mention of sexual addiction in the psychologists’ bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But a new proposed revision of the DSM, released Feb. 11 by the American Psychological Association, created the new category of “behavioral addictions.” The only disorder listed in that category so far is gambling, but many suspect a movement soon to also include sexual addiction.

Sexual addiction is listed on the Mayo Clinic Web site, which defines it as acts that “involve fantasies or activities outside the bounds of culturally, legally or morally accepted sexual behavior.”

Woods reportedly was treated at a sex-addiction clinic in Hattiesburg, Miss., and in his public statement said he will get “more treatment and more therapy.”

In-patient therapy centers can help sexual addicts in the recovery process, Ritvo says — at first simply by removing them temporarily from temptation.

“That’s why they’re in-patient,” she says.

Such centers use group or individual therapy to help the patient understand the nature of the addiction and how to cope. If they determine the addiction is caused by depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or other problems, medication can help, she said.

If nothing else works, patients usually age out of the problem eventually.

“Time is on their side,” she says. “Hormone levels decrease. It becomes easier to manage those urges.”