Component Model of Addiction Treatment: A Pragmatic Transdiagnostic Treatment Model of Behavioral and Substance Addictions

Course overview

Behavioral addictions such as gambling, video games, sex, and shopping share many clinical features with substance use disorders, including etiology, course, and neurobiology. Yet, the treatment of behavioral addictions and substance use addictions tends to be separated. However, we argue that a more effective and efficient treatment approach of addictive disorders is to conceptualize behavioral and substance use addictions as different expressions of a common underlying disorder and, in treatment, to address the underlying mechanisms common to both. To this end, the article presents a developing transdiagnostic treatment model of addictions that targets underlying similarities between behavioral and substance use addictions, called the component model of addiction treatment (CMAT).