Synonyms
Definition
Psychiatric diagnoses that include impulsivity or difficulties with behavioral and/or emotional inhibition as a primary symptom.
Introduction
Impulsivity Disorders refer to the numerous psychiatric disorders that involve impulsivity as a primary aspect of the clinical presentation. Impulsivity may present as an inability to inhibit behavior or emotions, a lack of forethought or planning, and a failure to consider the consequences of one’s actions. Examples of impulsivity disorders include pyromania, ADHD, and binge-eating disorder.
Impulsivity Disorders
Impulsivity disorders refer to psychiatric disorders with a primary symptom of impulsivity or deficits in behavioral and/or emotional inhibition. Hollander et al. (2008) define impulsivity as “the failure to resist an impulse, drive, or temptation that is potentially harmful to oneself or other” (p. 778). In summarizing the various definitions of impulsivity, Moeller et al. (2001), focused...
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References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders – Fifth edition (DSM-5). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Grant, J. E. (2008). Impulse control disorders: A Clinician’s guide to understanding and treating behavioral addictions. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Hollander, E., Berlin, H. A., & Stein, D. J. (2008). Impulse-control disorders not elsewhere classified. In R. Hales, S. Yudofsky, & G. Gabbard (Eds.), Textbook of psychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Moeller, F. G., Barratt, E. S., Schmitz, J. M., & Swann, A. C. (2001). Psychiatric aspects of impulsivity. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 11, 1783–1793.
Roberts, W., Milich, R., & Barkley, R. A. (2014). Primary symptoms, diagnostic criteria, subtyping, and prevalence of ADHD. In R. Barkley (Ed.), Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment (4th ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
Saddock, B. J., & Saddock, V. A. (2007). Impulse-disorders not elsewhere classified. In Synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (10th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2001). The five factor model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 669–689.
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Razza, T. (2018). Impulsivity Disorders. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3208-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3208-1
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