Professor Marc Potenza, Yale University: "What are the boundaries of addiction - on pathological gambling". A Stockholm Psychiatry Lecture held August 24 2011 at Karolinska Institutet. More lectures at    / psychiatrylectures  
Synopsis:
Pathological gambling is currently categorized in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) as an "Impulse Control Disorder Not Elsewhere Classified." There has been debate in the field as how best to classify pathological gambling and other impulse control disorders, with some people viewing the disorders as obsessive-compulsive-spectrum disorders and others as behavioral addictions. The presentation will focus on data from the past decade that has prompted the DSM committees to propose moving pathological gambling together with substance use disorders into a category of addictive disorders. Specifically, epidemiological, clinical, genetic and neurobiological data on the relationships between pathological gambling and other psychiatric disorders will be presented, with a focus on the close relationships between pathological gambling and substance dependence disorders. Information on how conceptualizing pathological gambling and other impulse control disorders might inform prevention and treatment strategies for these conditions will be discussed.