Behavioral Addictions: Past, Present and Future

Journal of Behavioral Addictions 1(1), pp. 1–2 (2012) DOI: 10.1556/JBA.1.2012.1.0 EDITORIAL

Behavioral addictions: Past, present and future

Behavioral addictions are a specific group of mental and be- highly heterogeneous group. Furthermore, although many havioral disorders. At present, this group of disorders is not of these behaviors share similar characteristics in common present in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, both with each other, and with substance use disorders 2000) or ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1994). How- (Grant, Potenza, Weinstein & Gorelick, 2010), there are also ever, in spite of this, the Substance-related disorders group significant differences. In many of these disorders, there is of the DSM-IV has proposed revisions to this that opens up still limited scientific and empirical support as to their inclu- the possibility for non-substance disorders to be subsumed sion as a behavioral addiction. Furthermore, there are many under the name Substance Use and Addictive Disorders. deficiencies in the exploration of their symptomatology, val- This is because one non-chemical addiction (i.e., pathologi- idation measures, and – at present – there are very few stud- cal gambling) has become part of this group (Holden, 2010). ies regarding the epidemiology and etiology of these dis- Other disorders currently treated as behavioral addictions orders. elsewhere in the academic literature (e.g., video game addic- In the past two decades, a few such concepts have tion, sex addiction, exercise addiction) look as though they emerged that have helped (or might help) in conceptually in- may take some time to be included in recognized psychiatric tegrating these disorders. These may include the already diagnostic manuals. mentioned obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders ap- These excessive disorders that do not typically involve proach of Hollander (1993), or may include different per- the ingestion of a psychoactive substance – and are typically spectives, such as the reward deficiency syndrome hypothe- identified as behavioral addictions (Griffiths, 1996) – do not sis (Blum et al., 2000), or the addiction components model form an independent group or belong to the same group as of Griffiths (2005). All of these approaches attempt an inte- chemical addictions to date. However, there are two points grative synthesis and attempt help to deal with these disor- in the forthcoming DSM-V where these disorders poten- ders within a comprehensive theoretical framework, inde- tially overlap. One is in the section on Obsessive-Compul- pendent of the name that is applied to such behaviors. sive and Related Disorders, which assembles the disorders Given these theoretical and empirical studies, ap- predominantly characterized by risk avoidance and is lo- proaches and concerns, the main aim of the Journal of Be- cated on the compulsive end of the obsessive-compulsive havioral Addictions is therefore to provide an interdisciplin- spectrum (Hollander, 1993). Alternatively, the second inter- ary forum for the scientific discussion concerning these dis- section, where the disorders that can be identified on the im- orders that belong to the overarching concept of behavioral pulsive end of the spectrum and which are accordingly char- addictions. On one hand, the journal aims to explore the acterized by risk seeking behavior, is included as Disruptive, unique and specific characteristics of these phenomena, Impulse Control and Conduct Disorders in DSM-V. while on the other hand it aims to assist the empirical and At present, this is the state of contemporary thinking conceptual analysis of the behavioral addiction debate. Such concerning behavioral addictions being treated as one group studies will provide insight and clarity regarding the rela- of disorders. Although the concept of behavioral addiction tionship between these many different disorders. A further appears to be on the increase in terms of usage in the litera- field of enquiry might include the analysis of the addictive ture, as yet (with the exception of pathological gambling), characteristics of disorders not traditionally considered as there is not enough empirical evidence to treat these disor- bona fide addictive disorders or the further exploration of ders as parts of one comprehensive and homogenous group. the relationships between substance-related and non-sub- These disorders (such as pathological gambling behavior, stance related addictive disorders. Given this wide remit, we problematic internet use, problematic use of computer and are looking forward to receiving manuscripts on these and video games, problematic online gaming, problematic social other issues related to all aspects of behavioral addiction. networking, pyromania, kleptomania, intermittent explosive disorder, trichotillomania, onychophagia, skin picking disorder, compulsive buying, hypersexual disorders, compul- Zsolt Demetrovics sive hoarding, exercise addiction, obsessive-compulsive Editor-in-Chief disorder, various types of eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, muscle dysmorphic disorder, hypochondriasis, at- Mark D. Griffiths tention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, etc.) comprise a Editorial Board member

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