Renewing the assessment of behavioral addictions is necessary to avoid pathologizing nonproblematic behaviors: Commentary on Grubbs and Boness (2025)

Comments on the viewpoint titled "Thinking Beyond Substances: Why Behavioral 'Addiction' Research Must Move Past Substance Use Disorder Paradigms," by J. B. Grubbs and C. L. Boness (see record 2025-66167-001). Grubbs and Boness (2025) articulate their perspective that behavioral addiction research is markedly flawed because of its uncritical adoption of substance use disorder (SUD) frameworks and methods. According to the authors, assuming a complete equivalence between behavioral addictions and SUDs inevitably results in a distorted and superficial understanding of these phenomena, paired with tautological definitions and overpathologization issues, which ultimately risks trivializing such conditions and even jeopardizing the credibility of the behavioral addiction research field. To counter this effect, they recommend shifting toward better-suited research approaches that focus on comprehending the unique phenomenology of putative behavioral addictions and build on broader theoretical perspectives on psychopathology rather than only (and merely) relying on borrowed SUD paradigms. We believe that one important missing perspective among the arguments raised by Grubbs and Boness (2025) is the varying relevance, especially in terms of diagnostic validity or clinical utility, of the various SUD features when transposed and applied to behavioral addictions. Indeed, it has been increasingly established that some SUD criteria reflect features that are not necessarily indicative of pathology (peripheral features), whereas others reflect features that can be used to identify pathological behavior (core features) adequately. We echo Grubbs and Boness (2025) in calling for scholars in the behavioral addiction scientific domain to embrace a construct-sensitive approach to research that engages with the distinctiveness of these potential conditions, rather than applying only ill-fitting models drawn from SUDs, such as the components model of addiction. Our position is that renewing the assessment of behavioral addictions is a prerequisite to improving this research area. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).