Behavioral addiction

Behavioral addiction, process addiction, or non-substance-related disorder is a form of addiction that involves a compulsion to engage in a rewarding non-substance-related behavior – sometimes called a natural reward – despite any negative consequences to the person's physical, mental, social or financial well-being. In the brain's reward system, a gene transcription factor known as ΔFosB has been identified as a necessary common factor involved in both behavioral and drug addictions, which are associated with the same set of neural adaptations.

Addiction canonically refers to substance abuse; however, the term's connotation has been expanded to include behaviors that may lead to a reward (such as gambling, eating, or shopping) since the 1990s. Still, the framework to diagnose and categorize behavioral addiction is a controversial topic in the psychopathology field.