The Behavioral Addictions

The Behavioral Addictions is the first American Psychiatric Publishing title to
explore the diagnosis and treatment of patients who suffer from behavioral
addictions, extreme forms of which share specific characteristics with severe
forms of substance use disorders. These characteristics include tolerance (the
need to use the substance or perform the troublesome behavior at higher doses,
or more and more frequently, in order to achieve the same effect); withdrawal
(feelings of restlessness, irritability, and discontent following abrupt
discontinuation of the substance or the behavior); obsessive thinking and
planning that block out anything other than obtaining or engaging in the
addictive agent or behavior; and accompanying external consequences in related
to finances, health, interpersonal relationships, legal affairs, etc. Although
not all behavioral addictions are currently recognized as such by DSM-5, both
substances and behaviors can hijack a person's pleasure-and-reward brain
circuitry, causing great suffering.

This case-based volume is practical
and engaging and offers many features that make it not only informative but also
accessible and entertaining:

Behaviors covered, both those widely
recognized and those less commonly accepted, involve exercise, food, gambling,
Internet gaming, Internet surfing, kleptomania, love, sex, shopping, work,
tanning, and e-mailing/texting. Introductory chapters discuss the relationship
of behavioral or process addictions to substance use disorders across many
spheres, and they provide an overview of the behavioral addictions from
neurobiological, theoretical, clinical, and forensic perspectives. Gambling
disorder is now classified in DSM-5 as a behavioral addiction, lending credence
to the construct of behavioral addictions and providing precedent for future
consideration of other behavioral addictions, such as those highlighted in the
volume. Each chapter focuses on a real-life case study of a patient with a
behavioral addiction. Videos that accompany the volume demonstrate encounters
between a clinician and a patient exhibiting an addiction. This puts material on
assessment, treatment, etc. into a real-world context. Key points for review
and multiple-choice questions are included at the end of each chapter.

Not simply an exaggeration of everyday social and personal ailments,
these behavioral conditions present clinicians with unique and poorly researched
challenges in everyday clinical practice. The Behavioral Addictions helps the
reader to determine not only where to draw the line between healthy and
unhealthy levels of participation in a behavior, but also how to intervene in
ways that are therapeutic, effective, and evidence-based.