We identified almost no ethnic group comparisons of addictive behaviors including eating/food, internet, sex, love, exercise, work, and shopping in the literature. Despite large-scale research efforts to examine addictive behaviors in the US, few studies have been published that examine these addictions by ethnicity, and even fewer examining co-occurrence and co-morbidity with other addictions among US ethnic groups. With the exception of eating disorders, most of these addictive behaviors are often overlooked or even not accepted as “addictions” by researchers and practitioners. The DSM-5, however, supports the conceptualization of these as behavioral addictions (e.g. sex, shopping, internet)7, which calls for the need for more research on these behaviors, including neurobiological and epidemiologic studies, to validate their similarities and differences with other addictive behaviors. It is important to acknowledge that there is large literature on substance addiction overlap with other psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and mood disorders77, but additional research is required to gain a more complete picture of the broader range of addictive behaviors and their overlap. We expect that forthcoming NESARC-III publications will provide updated prevalence of addictive behaviors in the US, and hope that these publications will include studies of ethnic group differences and multiple addictions.
