Borderline Personality Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, Antisocial Personality Disorder, ADHD, Substance Use: Common Threads, Common Treatment Needs, and the Nature of Impulsivity
Another interesting article which helps to join some of the dots.
Abstract:
Our intent in offering this contribution is to share with independent practitioners recent advances in clinical psychology research that shed light on the nature of a wide range of disorders related to impulsivity, as well as information on treatment decisions to be made with individuals suffering from such disorders. We come from academic training programs designed to integrate clinical research and clinical practice (the last author is a member of division 42). We hope that the findings we describe prove useful to the many practitioners who encounter some form of problems related to impulsive behavior in their work.
There are a great many diverse disorders in the DSM-IV that include some aspect of impulsive behavior in their diagnositic criteria. Other than subjective distress, impulsivity may be the most common diagnostic criterion in the manual. It appears among the criteria for borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, bulimia nervosa, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mania, dementia, substance use disorders, and the paraphilias, along with the whole section devoted to impulse-control disorders (e.g., intermittent explosive disorder, kleptomania, and pyromania). For many of these forms of psychopathology, impulsivity is understood to contribute to their emergence. Perhaps more importantly, successful treatment of impulsive tendencies is a difficult, if not daunting, task.