Behavioural Addiction: a Useful Construct?

[Addictions to information and communication technologies in Comunitat Valenciana (Spain), 2018-2020]

OBJECTIVE

To describe the sociodemographic profile of the people treated for addiction to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the addictive behavior units (ABU) of Comunitat Valenciana, Spain, in 2018-2020.

METHOD

Annual analysis and for the global period according to information collected in the ABU records.

RESULTS

219 registered cases, mostly men (87%), under 30 years of age (53%), with primary education or less (51%), and living with parents (57%). In the study period significant changes were observed in age (increase) and employment situation (more active workers). The COVID-19 pandemic's year (2020) accentuated or maintained previous trends.

CONCLUSIONS

The person treated for addiction to ICTs in Comunitat Valenciana is mostly male, under 30 years of age and with a primary education level or less, with a trend to increase in age and in proportion of active workers. Prevention should focus on these groups at higher risk.

Criteria for the establishment of a new behavioural addiction •

When does repeated behaviour constitute behavioural addiction? There has been considerable debate about non-substance-related addictions and how to determine when impaired control over a behaviour is addiction. There are public health benefits to identifying new behavioural addictions if intervention can improve outcomes. However, criteria for establishing new behavioural addictions must guard against diagnostic inflation and the pathologizing of normal problems of living. Criteria should include clinical relevance (Criterion 1), alignment with addiction phenomenology (Criterion 2) and theory (Criterion 3), and taxonomic plausibility (Criterion 4). Against such criteria, evidence does not yet support classification of pornography-use and buying-shopping disorders as addictions.

Rethinking the Medicalization of Violence: The Risks of a Behavioral Addiction Model

This commentary responds to and problematizes Kimmel and Rowe's approach in "A Behavioral Addiction Model of Revenge, Violence, and Gun Abuse." By advancing an addiction model of retaliatory violence, Kimmel and Rowe medicalize behavior that is better understood as a social problem rooted in structural inequality. Reframing violence in terms of individual pathology abstracts it from social context and risks obscuring the need for structural change. For poor urban communities of color, who are disproportionately impacted by gun violence, medicalizing violent behavior may fuel further marginalization and oppression.

DSM-5 diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder: Some ways forward in overcoming issues and concerns in the gaming studies field

Background and aims The current DSM-5 diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) has led to a number of issues and concerns that we highlighted in our recent paper (Kuss, Griffiths, & Pontes, 2017). Experts in the field responded to our evaluation of these issues resulting in six commentaries. Methods In this paper, we offer responses to the six commentaries to move the scientific field forward. All of the responses to our original paper highlighted many conceptual, theoretical, and/or methodological problems with the proposed IGD diagnosis as outlined in the DSM-5. We outline some ways forward in overcoming issues and concerns in the gaming studies field. Results We argue that rather than stigmatizing gaming per se, the role of scientists and practitioners is to establish a clear-cut distinction between someone who may use games excessively but non-problematically and someone who is experiencing significant impairment in their daily lives as a consequence of their excessive gaming. This responsibility needs to be shared by popular media who are often quick to build a moral panic around gaming behaviors, often based on cherry-picking specific case studies and pieces of research which support their headlines. Conclusion Researchers, practitioners, gaming developers, and the media need to work together and collaboratively to build a realistic and comprehensive understanding of gaming as a normal, enjoyable, and often beneficial sociocultural practice, which for a small minority of excessive users may be associated with the experience of addiction-related symptoms that may require professional support.