Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T11:19:06.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Impulse-Control Disorders Toward Behavioral Addictions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Stefano Pallanti
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the last 20 years, research on substance addictions has changed its focus from the social foundations to the neurobiological foundations. Hence, some behaviors have begun to be considered as equivalent to addiction based on proposed criteria: salience, withdrawal symptoms, tolerance, conflicts, relapse, and mood modifications.

New knowledge about the brain's reward system suggests that “as far as the brain is concerned a reward is a reward, regardless of whether it comes from a chemical stimulus or an experience.”

Pathological gambling was the prototypical addiction disorder, sharing some hallmarks with substance addictions: a high rate of comorbidity and treatment response to pharmacotherapies, such as opioid antagonist. However, compulsive sexual behavior, compulsive exercise, food starving, binge eating, and, most recently, Internet addiction have been gradually conceptualized as non-substance addictions with overlapping features with substance dependence. Several definitions” have been adopted regarding these behaviors: natural addiction, non-chemical addiction, and negative dependence are only some examples. This issue of CNS Spectrums focuses on behavioral addictions.

Type
Introduction
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 11 , Issue 12 , December 2006 , pp. 921 - 922
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Griffiths, M. Nicotine, tobacco and addiction. Nature. 1996;384:18.Google Scholar
2. Holden, C. “Behavioral” addictions, do they really exist? Science. 2001;294:980–982.Google Scholar
3. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed. text rev. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000.Google Scholar
4. Moeller, FG, Barratt, ES, Dougherty, DM, Schmitz, JM, Swann, AC. Psychiatric aspects of impulsivity. Am J Psychiatry. 2001;158:1783–1793.Google Scholar
5. Simon, HA. A mechanism for social selection and successful altruism. Science. 1991;252:192.Google Scholar
6. Jacobs, DF. Evidence for a common dissociative-like reaction among addicts. Journal of Gambling Behavior. 1988;4:27–37.Google Scholar
7. Koob, GF, Sanna, PP, Bloom, FE. Neuroscience of addiction. Neuron. 1998;21:467–476.Google Scholar
8. Berke, JD, Hyman, SE. Addiction, dopamine, and the molecular mechanism of memory. Neuron. 2000;25:515–532.Google Scholar