title: How can we conceptualize behavioural addiction without pathologizing common behaviours?
abstract: Following the recent changes to the diagnostic category for addictive disorders in DSM-5, it is urgent to clarify what constitutes behavioural addiction to have a clear direction for future research and classification. However, in the years following the release of DSM-5, an expanding body of research has increasingly classified engagement in a wide range of common behaviours and leisure activities as possible behavioural addiction. If this expansion does not end, both the relevance and the credibility of the field of addictive disorders might be questioned, which may prompt a dismissive appraisal of the new DSM-5 subcategory for behavioural addiction. We propose an operational definition of behavioural addiction together with a number of exclusion criteria, to avoid pathologizing common behaviours and provide a common ground for further research. The definition and its exclusion criteria are clarified and justified by illustrating how these address a number of theoretical and methodological shortcomings that result from existing conceptualizations. We invite other researchers to extend our definition under an Open Science Foundation framework.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kardefelt-Winther
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heeren
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schimmenti
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences, imec-mict-Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Antonius
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4516-3551
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Rooij
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maurage
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0750-524X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carras
authors.affiliation: Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Edman
authors.affiliation: Gambling Treatment Clinic and Research, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blaszczynski
authors.affiliation: Geneva University Hospital, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Yasser
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Khazaal
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain, Belgium.|Institute for Health and Behavior, Integrative Research Unit on Social and Individual Development (INSIDE), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.|Internet and gambling disorders Clinic, Department of Adult Psychiatry, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Billieux
mesh_terms: D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans
keywords: Addiction theory; DSM-5; behavioral addiction; diagnosis; gambling disorder; internet gaming disorder; non-substance related addictions; pathologization; theory development