Behavioral addiction

Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction that involves a compulsion to engage in a rewarding non-drug-related behavior – sometimes called a natural reward – despite any negative consequences to the person's physical, mental, social or financial well-being. A gene transcription factor known as ΔFosB has been identified as being the critical progenitor of behavioral and drug addictions, which are associated with the same set of neural adaptations in the reward system.