Addictive behaviors refer to repeated substance use or repeated engagement in rewarding activities despite negative consequences, impaired control, craving, and functional impairment. While addiction was traditionally associated mainly with psychoactive substances, contemporary research also examines behavioral addictions and addiction-like patterns such as gambling, compulsive buying, work addiction, exercise dependence, food addiction-like processes, and other repetitive reward-based behaviors.
Modern approaches conceptualize addiction as a multidimensional process involving reward sensitivity, craving, habit formation, impulsivity, compulsivity, motivational conflict, and difficulties in self-regulation. These mechanisms may operate across both substance-related and behavioral domains, supporting a transdiagnostic view of addictive behavior.
These instruments assess addictive behavior across multiple substances, activities, or behavioral domains rather than focusing on one specific addiction. They are useful for broad screening, comparative assessment, and identifying common psychological processes involved in addictive patterns.
The Addictive Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ) is a broad measure for assessing substance-related and addictive disorders. It includes a Severity Index and the Seven Domains Addiction Scale, which assesses psychological and behavioral domains involved in addiction.
The Behavioral Addictions Questionnaire (BAQ) screens for multiple behavioral addictions, including shopping, food addiction, gambling, sex, work, exercise, Internet use, videogaming, and smartphone use.
The Brief Screener for Behavioural Addictions assesses problematic engagement across several potentially addictive behaviors, including gambling, video gaming, sex, overeating, overworking, shopping, and selected substance-related behaviors.
The Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) provides a short assessment of psychological dependence, including impaired control and preoccupation, and can be applied across different substances.
These measures screen for risky or problematic substance use across several substance categories. They are useful for initial assessment when the specific pattern of alcohol, tobacco, medication, or drug use is not yet clear.
The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was developed by the World Health Organization to screen for tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, stimulants, sedatives, opioids, and other psychoactive substances in primary care and general health settings.
The Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription medication, and other Substance use Tool (TAPS) provides a brief two-stage screening and assessment approach for tobacco, alcohol, prescription medication misuse, and illicit substance use.
The Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ) assesses psychological aspects of dependence across substance-use domains.
These measures assess risky alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, dependence risk, early signs of alcohol problems, and patterns that may require more detailed clinical or preventive assessment.
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT, AUDIT-C) is one of the most widely used measures of hazardous and harmful alcohol use, developed by the World Health Organization.
The CAGE Questionnaire is a brief screening measure for alcohol-related problems based on four core indicators: cutting down, annoyance by criticism, guilt, and eye-openers.
The TWEAK Test is a brief alcohol screening questionnaire developed to identify risky drinking and possible alcohol dependence, especially in women and perinatal care settings.
The Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) is an older, more comprehensive alcohol screening instrument that assesses alcohol-related problems, consequences, and dependence indicators.
These measures assess nicotine dependence, reasons for smoking, attitudes toward smoking, and smoking-related risk in adolescents or young people.
The Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) assesses physical dependence on nicotine, including smoking urgency, consumption level, and difficulty refraining from smoking.
The Modified Reasons for Smoking Scale (MRSS + RSS) assesses smoking motives across several domains, including dependence, pleasure, tension reduction, social motives, stimulation, and habit.
The Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU) assesses smoking-related craving and urges, including desire to smoke and anticipation of relief or reward.
These instruments assess drug use,risk of narcotization, substance-related vulnerability, and early indicators of chemical dependence, especially in preventive or adolescent assessment contexts.
The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) screens for problematic drug use and drug-related problems, including frequency of use, dependence symptoms, and harmful consequences.
The Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST, DAST-10) assesses problems related to non-alcohol drug use.
The CRAFFT (+ RAFFT) is a brief screening instrument for substance-use risk in adolescents, covering alcohol and drug use in relation to riding in cars, relaxation, solitary use, forgetting, family or friends' concern, and trouble.
The Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R) assesses problematic cannabis use, including consumption, dependence, cannabis-related problems, and psychological features.
These measures assess craving, addiction-related thoughts, situational confidence, and motives for alcohol, smoking, or drug use. They focus on urges, expectations, triggers, and motivational processes that support continued use or relapse risk.
The McMullin Addiction Thought Scale assesses addiction-related thoughts and beliefs, including cognitive patterns that may support dependency or relapse.
The Brief Substance Craving Scale (BSCS) provides a concise assessment of craving intensity and related substance-use urges.
The Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) assesses frequency, intensity, and duration of alcohol craving.
The Brief Situational Confidence Questionnaire (BSCQ) assesses confidence in resisting substance use across high-risk situations, including negative emotions, social pressure, conflict, and urges.
The Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale (OCDS) assesses alcohol-related obsessive thoughts and compulsive drinking urges, including preoccupation with drinking, impaired control, craving, and resistance to alcohol-related thoughts or behaviors.
The Reasons for Heavy Drinking Questionnaire (RHDQ) assesses motives and reasons for heavy alcohol use, including emotional, social, coping-related, and habit-based reasons.
These clinically oriented measures assess readiness for change, treatment engagement, rehabilitation potential, illness awareness, denial or anosognosia, and withdrawal symptoms. They are used when addictive behavior is considered in the context of clinical care, recovery, safety, and treatment planning.
The Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) assesses motivation for change in substance use, including recognition of the problem, ambivalence, and taking steps toward change.
The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol (CIWA-AR) is a clinician-rated scale for assessing the severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) is a clinician-rated scale for assessing the severity of opioid withdrawal symptoms.
These measures assess gambling-related problems, betting behavior, loss of control, gambling urges, harmful consequences, and severity of gambling involvement. Gambling disorder is one of the most established behavioral addictions and has a well-developed assessment tradition.
The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is one of the most widely used measures of gambling-related problems, assessing loss of control, financial consequences, and negative impact on daily functioning.
The Gambling Symptom Assessment Scale (G-SAS) assesses gambling urges, thoughts, behavior, emotional distress, and impairment, making it useful for monitoring severity and change.
The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) is a classic screening instrument for pathological gambling. Although historically important, it is generally less central than newer measures such as the PGSI.
The Early Intervention Gambling Health Test (EIGHT Screen) is a brief gambling screen designed to identify early signs of gambling-related harm and risk.
The Massachusetts Gambling Screen (MAGS) assesses gambling problems and gambling-related risk, including symptoms associated with pathological or disordered gambling.
These measures assess compulsive buying, shopping addiction-like patterns, brand dependence, loss of control over purchases, preoccupation with buying, and negative consequences of consumption-related behavior. These patterns should be interpreted cautiously, since their diagnostic status remains debated.
The Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale (BSAS) assesses compulsive shopping based on core addiction components such as salience, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse, and problems.
The Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale (RCBS) assesses compulsive buying tendencies, including loss of control over shopping, intrusive buying urges, and distress or impairment related to excessive purchasing.
The Edwards Compulsive Buying Scale (ECBS) assesses compulsive buying tendencies, including loss of control over shopping, preoccupation with buying, and distress or impairment related to excessive purchasing.
Some repetitive behaviors are studied using addiction-like models, although their diagnostic status varies and should not be treated as directly equivalent to substance-use disorders. These measures assess loss of control, compulsive involvement, craving-like processes, persistence despite harm, and difficulty disengaging from food, exercise, or work.
The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0, mYFAS), assess addictive-like eating behavior using criteria adapted from substance-use disorder frameworks.
The Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) provides a brief screening measure for risk of exercise addiction, capturing excessive or compulsive exercise patterns.
The Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS) assesses work addiction using core addiction components such as salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse, and problems.
Codependency is widely used in clinical and self-help contexts, especially in relation to substance use, dysfunctional relationships, and family systems affected by addiction. Its conceptual status remains debated, so it is best treated as a related relational construct rather than as an addiction in the strict sense.
The Spann-Fischer Codependency Scale (SFCS) assesses codependent tendencies, including excessive emotional reliance on others, external focus, and difficulties with personal boundaries.
The Codependency Assessment Tool (CODAT) provides a multidimensional assessment of codependency, including interpersonal control, self-worth, emotional expression, and boundary-related difficulties.
The Composite Codependency Scale (CCS) assesses codependency across dimensions such as self-sacrifice, interpersonal control, and emotional suppression.
The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) assesses experiences associated with growing up in a family affected by parental alcohol misuse.
○ The Codependency Self-Inventory Scale (CSIS) assesses codependent relationship patterns, including excessive caretaking, difficulty setting boundaries, externalized self-worth, and involvement in controlling or emotionally dependent relationships.
These measures do not assess addiction directly, but capture mechanisms that may contribute to the development and maintenance of addictive patterns across substances and behaviors. They focus on compulsivity, habit strength, reward sensitivity, positive-valence processes, and broader motivational systems involved in reinforcement.
The Cambridge-Chicago Compulsivity Trait Scale assesses compulsivity as a transdiagnostic trait, reflecting repetitive behavior driven by habit and reduced cognitive control.
The Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) measures the degree to which behaviors are automatic and habitual, capturing the transition from goal-directed action to habitual responding.
The Reward Probability Index (RPI) assesses access to and responsiveness to environmental reward, reflecting reinforcement processes relevant to addictive behavior.
The Positive Valence Systems Scale (PVSS) assesses reward-related processes within the RDoC framework, including motivation, reward learning, and hedonic experience.
⇒ Cyberpsychology. Problematic gaming, social media use, smartphone use, and excessive online engagement are covered in the digital behavior domain.
⇒ Sexuality. Problematic and compulsive sexual behavior is covered in the sexuality domain, where it is interpreted in the broader context of sexual desire, behavior, distress, functioning, and loss of control.
⇒ Eating Behavior. Food addiction-like measures overlap with eating behavior through craving, loss of control, binge eating, restraint, and emotional eating.
⇒ Sport and Physical Activity. Exercise dependence overlaps with sport and physical activity through excessive involvement, compulsive exercise, burnout, and difficulty disengaging.
⇒ Work. Work addiction overlaps with occupational functioning through excessive work involvement, difficulty disengaging, strain, and negative consequences.
⇒ Self-Regulation. Addictive behaviors overlap with self-regulation through impulsivity, compulsivity, craving, habit formation, and impaired control.
Addictive behaviors share common mechanisms across substances and activities, even when the specific behavior differs. Alcohol use, drug use, nicotine use, gambling, compulsive buying, exercise dependence, work addiction, and other repetitive behaviors may all involve craving, reinforcement, impaired control, habit formation, and persistence despite negative consequences.
Assessment should distinguish the object of addiction, the degree of impaired control, craving or urge intensity, functional impairment, harm, treatment readiness, withdrawal symptoms, comorbidity, and the psychological mechanisms maintaining the pattern.
Behavioral addiction measures require particular caution. Gambling disorder is formally recognized, while shopping, work, exercise, food-related, sexual, and many digital patterns are often studied dimensionally and may vary in diagnostic status. These constructs should not be interpreted as equivalent to substance-use disorders without considering distress, impairment, persistence, context, and clinical relevance.
Self-report instruments are useful for screening, psychoeducation, and research, but they do not establish a diagnosis on their own. A comprehensive interpretation combines domain-specific screening with assessment of craving, compulsivity, habit strength, reward sensitivity, impulsivity, emotion regulation, functional consequences, and readiness for change.