Non-substance-related disorders: Gambling disorder and internet addiction

Behavioural addictions are highly prevalent in specific subgroups and have a major individual and societal impact. Moreover, given the availability and increase of potentially addictive activities in our societal development(e.g. internet, gaming, online pornography) an increase in these types of behavioural disorders is very likely. Gambling Disorders are best studied among the non-chemical addictions. However, effective treatment interventions need to be further developed, in particular for Internet Addiction. Most of the available evidence supports behavioural interventions as first-line treatment. Specifically for Gambling Disorder, pharmacotherapy can be a useful augmentation. Psychiatric comorbidities are frequent in patients with behaviouraln addictions and negatively affect the course of non-substance-related disorders. Concurrent treatment of these comorbid disorders is advised, although there is a clear need of conducting studies evaluating the effectiveness of integrated treatment approaches.