ReviewAddiction (Abingdon, England)2017
How can we conceptualize behavioural addiction without pathologizing common behaviours?
Review in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 238 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
238 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Problematic Love Behaviors and Correlated Factors: A Systematic Review with Subgroup Meta-Analysis Including Gender/Sex Moderation.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Adolescents' online pornography use and psychopathological symptoms: insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Addicted, attached, or just delegating? A scoping review on "problematic artificial intelligence use".Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- What factors explain extreme sport participation? A systematic review.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Pooled it
- Face validity evaluation of screening tools for gaming disorder: Scope, language, and overpathologizing issues.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2020Pooled it
- Excessive Exercise-A Meta-Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Food Addiction as Measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale: Implications for the Food Addiction Construct.Current neuropharmacology · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of a 7-Day Pornography Abstinence Period on Withdrawal-Related Symptoms in Regular Pornography Users: A Randomized Controlled Study.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Trial
- Hooked on virtual social life. Problematic social media use and associations with mental distress and addictive disorders.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Mental health, personality, and cross-addictions as predictors of social media addiction: a machine learning longitudinal study.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Examining the transdiagnostic role of coping motives and experiential avoidance in the relationship between generalized anxiety disorder and addictive behaviours.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- Levels of Susceptibility to Exercise Dependence and Mood States in Street Runners.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The good and the bad: A qualitative investigation of students' perspectives on their problematic smartphone use.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- The Swedish version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale: A psychometric evaluation among adolescents.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Validation of the DSM-5 internet gaming disorder framework for clinical diagnosis of problematic social media usage.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Exploring Latent Profiles of Problematic Social Media Use and Their Relationship with Distress, FoMO, and Self-Esteem: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Turkish Adult Population.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- Association between smartphone overdependence and alcohol and tobacco use behaviors among adolescents in Korea.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A functional approach to social media assessment: Initial psychometric evaluation of the Social Media Use Functional Assessment.Journal of applied behavior analysis · 2026Article
- Parent-child discrepancies in screening for Internet Gaming Disorder: Evidence from a clinical sample of Japanese adolescents.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Abusive Practices, Self-regulation Strategies, and the Language of Addiction: Narratives Surrounding Problematic Smartphone Use in Southeastern Spanish Youth.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2026Article
178 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
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.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.