Compulsive and Impulsive Disorders: Symptoms, Mechanisms and Therapeutic Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

Depending on their definitions and diagnostic limits, compulsive and impulsive disorders are thought to affect up to 10% of the general population. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, the paradigmatic compulsive disorder, has a long tradition within psychiatry and has influenced much of the research on the clinical expression and therapeutic approaches of a series of related conditions, now broadly recognized as obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. These conditions include body dysmorphic disorder, hypochondriasis, olfactory reference disorder, hoarding disorder, trichotillomania, and excoriation disorders. On the other hand, impulsive disorders (a less homogenous group) have been traditionally listed in different parts or chapters of diagnostic manuals (e.g., as disorders due substance use and addictive behaviors, disruptive behaviors, and impulse control disorder per se). Based on their superficial resemblance, inherent differences, and shared mechanisms, psychiatry “architects” have discussed whether these disorders could be subsumed by a common impulsive-compulsive construct. In this Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine, we are welcoming papers that examine both the specificities (subtypes) within these disorders and their common transdiagnostic mechanisms to help redefine their limits and propose new treatments.

Prof. Leonardo F. Fontenelle
Guest Editor

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