However, research conducted in the early 1990s in the United States gave prevalence estimates between 5–6% in the U.S. population, with male cases being higher than female. Internet addiction
The disorder of Internet addiction has only recently been taken into consideration and has been added as a form of ICD. It is characterized by excessive and damaging usage of Internet with increased amount of time spent chatting, web surfing, gambling, shopping or consuming pornography. Excessive and problematic Internet use has been reported across all age, social, economic, and educational ranges. Although initially thought to occur mostly in males, increasing rates have been also observed in females. However, no epidemiological study has been conducted yet to understand its prevalence. Compulsive shopping
Compulsive shopping or buying is characterized by a frequent irresistible urge to shop even if the purchases are not needed or cannot be afforded. The prevalence of compulsive buying in the U.S. has been estimated to be 2–8% of the general adult population, with 80–95% of these cases being females. The onset is believed to occur in late teens or early twenties and the disorder is considered to be generally chronic. Pyromania
Pyromania is characterized by impulsive and repetitive urges to deliberately start fires. Because of its nature, the number of studies performed for fire-setting are understandably limited. However, studies done on children and adolescents with pyromania have reported its prevalence to be between 2.4 and 3.5% in the United States.
Prevalence studies suggest that ICDs occur in 13.6–36.0% of Parkinsons patients exhibited at least one form of ICD. There is a significant co-occurrence of pathological gambling and personality disorder, and is suggested to be caused partly by their common "genetic vulnerability". The degree of heritability to ICD is similar to other psychiatric disorders including substance use disorder. There has also been found a genetic factor to the development of ICD just as there is for substance use disorder. The risk for subclinical PG in a population is accounted for by the risk of alcohol dependence by about 12–20% genetic and 3–8% environmental factors. There is a high rate of co-morbidity between ADHD and other impulse-control disorders. Mechanism
Dysfunction of the striatum may prove to be the link between OCD, ICD and SUD. According to research, the impulsiveness that occurs in the later stages of OCD is caused by progressive dysfunction of the ventral striatal circuit. Whereas in case of ICD and SUD, the increased dysfunction of dorsal striatal circuit increases the "ICD and SUD behaviours that are driven by the compulsive processes". OCD and ICD have traditionally been viewed as two very different disorders, the former one is generally driven by the desire to avoid harm whereas the latter one driven "by reward-seeking behaviour". Still, there are certain behaviors similar in both, for example the compulsive actions of ICD patients and the behavior of reward-seeking (for example hoarding) in OCD patients. Treatment
Impulse-control disorders have two treatment options: psychosocial and pharmacological.