Phenomenology and treatment of behavioral addictions

Summary: Behavioral addictions are found to share certain important characteristics with alcohol and substance abuse. Behavioural addictions are characterized by an inability of an individual to voluntarily resist an urge or drive that results in actions that are in some way or the other harmful to oneself or relevant others.

Source: The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

We frequently discuss and observe behavioural addictions in our daily lives, so there exists a significant interest in this topic. The term behavioural addiction therefore requires a detailed understanding.

Behavioral addictions are characterized by an inability of an individual to voluntarily resist an urge or drive that results in actions that are in some way or the other harmful to oneself or relevant others.
Behavioral addictions are found to share certain important characteristics with alcohol and substance abuse. These similarities are further seen in areas which include phenomenology, natural history, and adverse consequences of the behaviour.

The kinds of behavioral addictions that are being talked about here include pathological gambling, internet addiction, pyromania, compulsive buying, kleptomania, compulsive sexual behaviour, and binge eating disorders to mention a few.

There are certain articles that have tried to look into the matter. A group of psychologists tried to conduct a meta analysis or review to understand this phenomena in depth.

These studies have tried to examine the efficacy and importance of pharmacological and psychological treatment that can be employed in the context of various behavioural addictions that have been mentioned before in this article. However, these studies do not produce any conclusive statement. Currently, no treatment recommendations can be made about behavioural addiction. Symptomatic treatment and psychotherapy are generally given.