Global scientific production regarding behavioral addictions: An analysis of the literature from 1995 to 2019

The increase in scientific interest in so-called behavioral addictions has been growing in recent years. For this reason, the aim of our study is to use bibliometric techniques to identify where and with what intensity these behaviors are being studied.

In October 2020, we conducted a search in the Web of Science Core Collection using a search equation designed to retrieve the articles that combine the general keywords of addiction with specific terms of the 7 groups of behavioral addictions analyzed (gambling; gaming; information and communication related disorders; and the so-called somatic addictions related to sex, shopping, food and sports). Articles published from 1995 to 2019 were included.

We found 9199 distinct articles. Gambling was the most studied addiction, but Information and Technology Communication-related disorders (ITC) had the highest growth rate over the span of five five-year periods, followed by gaming and food addiction. In general, there was a growth rate of 130.46% in the research on behavioral addiction issues. By geographical region, the United States was the most productive country regarding all addictions, but Oceania had the highest proportion of publications per million population. There was a clear interest among Asian countries in studying problems related to ITC and gaming problems.

The importance of the seven behavioral addictions analyzed according to their growth rate in scientific research fields over the last 25 years was confirmed in our study. In addition, the differences in interest by geographical region show us that it is important to delve deeper into cultural particularities to better understand this phenomenon.