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Aggression in Behavioral Addictions

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Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence
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Abstract

Behavioral addiction is an emerging concept referring to psychiatric conditions characterized by repeated and uncontrolled urges of seeking specific behaviors despite negative consequences are expected. As an addictive disorder, several behavioral problems are thought to mutually be involved in behavioral and drug addiction, one of which is heighted aggression. Although relatively few studies have been conducted to examine aggression in behavioral addiction to date, an emerging picture suggests heterogeneous nature of aggression that depends on subtypes of addiction. In this chapter, a current state of what is known about aggression and its biological mechanisms is described from the perspective of behavioral addiction. Then, implications arguing that aggression is a promising target for understanding not only drug addiction but also behavioral addiction are given.

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Abbreviations

5-HT:

Serotonin

5-HIAA :

5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid

BPA :

Buss-Perry Aggression

CSF:

Cerebrospinal fluid

DA:

Dopamine

DSM-5:

5th Edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

HPA :

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal

HPG:

Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal

HVA:

Homovanillic acid

ICD-11:

11th Version of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems

NAcc:

Nucleus accumbens

PET:

Positron emission tomography

PFC:

Prefrontal cortex

PSAP:

Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm

RPA:

Reactive-Proactive Aggression

SSRI:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

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Asaoka, Y., Goto, Y. (2023). Aggression in Behavioral Addictions. In: Martin, C.R., Preedy, V.R., Patel, V.B. (eds) Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31547-3_51

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