Are there differences between how you should treat a behavioural addiction when compared to a drug addiction?

A Portuguese Clinical Psychologist from the DICAD travelled to the UK to examine the practice of the National Problem Gambling Clinic under Dr Bowden-Jones.

Working together with Andrew Bayston a British therapist, they came to similar conclusions on the treatment of these different addictions:

• Although there are differences in the superficial features of a drug addiction and a gambling addiction, the psychological and social problems that the patients present with are often the same.
• There are no fundamental differences in how treatment is approached when comparing the National Problem Gambling Clinic with national addiction services in Portugal.
• For both addictions, successful treatment outcomes are dependent on having different options available to the client and putting them at the centre of their own treatment plan.
• Both the National Problem Gambling Clinic and the Portuguese national addiction services treat addiction as a public health problem, not a judicial problem.