A Comparison of Treatment-Seeking Behavioral Addiction Patients with and without Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

The administration of dopaminergic medication to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with addictive behaviors and impulse control disorders. Little is known, however, on how PD patients differ from other patients seeking treatments for behavioral addictions. The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of behavioral addiction patients with and without PD. N = 2,460 treatment-seeking men diagnosed with a behavioral addiction were recruited from a university hospital. Sociodemographic, impulsivity [Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11)], and personality [Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R)] measures were taken upon admission to outpatient treatment. Patients in the PD group were older and had a higher prevalence of mood disorders than patients without PD. In terms of personality characteristics and impulsivity traits, PD patients appeared to present a more functional profile than PD-free patients with a behavioral addiction. Our results suggest that PD patients with a behavioral addiction could be more difficult to detect than their PD-free counterparts in behavioral addiction clinical setting due to their reduced levels of impulsivity and more standard personality traits. As a whole, this suggests that PD patients with a behavioral addiction may have different needs from PD-free behavioral addiction patients and that they could potentially benefit from targeted interventions.

Self‐reported rates of impulsivity in Parkinson’s Disease

“…These results are consistent with previous studies that define changes to delayed discounting, and altered reward strategies, in patients with ICBs 6,15,27,29,58 . Interestingly, we observed significant differences between the ICB+ and ICB‐ groups in only one first‐order factor (attention) and in the second order factor non‐planning (self‐control and cognitive complexity).…”

“…Furthermore, while previous studies focus on PD patients with and without ICB, we included analyses that self‐assess behavioral symptoms in a healthy cohort. Findings regarding increased motor impulsivity are less consistent, with some studies showing increased motor impulsivity in ICB patients, 15,61 There are no elevations in BIS‐11 motor impulsivity scores and this is consistent with previous studies that show intact behavioral motor inhibitory control in ICB patients 63‐65 and lower self‐reported ratings of motor impulsivity in PD patients with addictions 27 …”

“…1). Although many studies of PD report BIS‐11 total scores, and some of which report second‐order scores, 6,15,27‐29 none to our knowledge have investigated first‐order factors. Although these studies do tend to find differences in total and second‐order level BIS‐11 scores, there are inconsistencies on how second‐order factors differ between PD and healthy participants.…”

“…A larger cohort of patients with PD would allow for an in‐depth look at both the first‐ and second‐order subscales, elucidating both the primary traits expressed in patients with PD, as well as those who meet criteria for ICB. Assessing first‐order factor data could impart a more detailed understanding of impulsive changes within a PD population 27 . For instance, both the first‐order factors, attention and cognitive instability, contribute to the second‐order factor, attention, but they are comprised of different elements; the first‐order factor (attention) reflects a failure to maintain cognitive attention, while the first‐order factor (cognitive instability) is characterized by the presence of racing or extraneous thoughts.…”

The Development of the Turkish Craving for Online Shopping Scale: A Validation Study

“…Behavioral addictions are similar to substance addictions in many ways including natural history, phenomenology, tolerance, comorbidity, overlapping genetic contribution, neurobiological mechanisms, and response to treatment (Grant et al 2010;Griffiths 2005). Addiction professionals view specific nonsubstance behaviors such as problematic gambling, Internet use, video-game playing, sex, eating, and shopping as bearing resemblance to substance addictions (Griffiths 2005;Sauvaget et al 2017;Yau and Potenza 2015). The mechanisms of substance and nonsubstance addictions have common characteristics.…”