The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that impulse-control disorders occur in approximately 9 percent of U.S. adults in any year, with almost 25 percent occurrence over the lifetimes or American adults. Each disorder type has...
Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals treat impulse control disorders. These disorders consist of a cluster of diagnoses that includes fire-setting, kleptomania, intermittent explosive disorder, hair-pulling and...
Impulse control disorders are mental illnesses that can affect children and adults. The symptoms are often alarming to parents, who might interpret the symptoms as serious misbehavior and delay seeking treatment. Children with untreated impulse...
A gambling problem, also known as gambling addition or compulsive gambling, is an addiction that should be treated as seriously as a drug or alcohol addiction. According to the Mayo Clinic, a gambling addiction occurs when an individual feels he...
The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition, Text Revision"--or DSM-IV-TR--defines Impulse control disorder as the inability to restrain activity which typically results in harm to oneself or others. An impulse...
Impulsive behaviors in a child can range from mildly annoying actions like toy snatching, to dangerous ones such as darting into traffic. As frustrating as impulsive behaviors can be when your child is a toddler or preschooler, these actions...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder--ADHD, can cause developmental difficulties throughout the life of the child, from early childhood through to late adolescence. Specific issues are involved in each age bracket--ages 4 to 10, 11 to 13, 14...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition typically diagnosed in childhood and pervasive throughout life. ADHD can impair functioning, but is not usually severe enough to require hospitalization or extreme safety measures....
Adderall is a stimulant medication used to treat poor impulse control and improve concentration. These symptoms are apparent in multiple psychiatric conditions, specifically attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder.
If you find yourself raising a child who has a hard time controlling his impulses, you are not alone. Children, especially preschoolers, are naturally active and often fearless when it comes to expressing themselves or exploring their...
Any addiction is dangerous; gambling is no exception. John M. Grohol, Psy.D., author of the Psych Central website's article "Warning Signs and Risk Factors for Pathological Gambling," writes that gambling addiction affects 2 to 4 percent of the...
If your parent has been diagnosed with a significant mental illness, it impacts you and your family. While a parent diagnosed with schizophrenia may seem like two people, she does not suffer from "split" or multiple personalities. Most people...
The most important fact to remember if your husband raises his hand to you is that it's not your fault. There is never a good reason for a husband to hit, insult or otherwise abuse his wife. But while there is no excuse for spousal abuse, there...
Toddlers and preschoolers are notorious for sharing difficulties. Because of the way a child develops in his social abilities and the type of play he enjoys, interacting with another child during play often results in squabbles. Even when playing...
Most children have temper tantrums at some stage in their childhood, and like adults, they sometimes need to vent their anger. Although some kids have a tendency to be more high-strung than others, generally, even an unruly child's behavior is...
Gambling addiction is the compulsive act of gambling without regard for financial, family- or work-related consequences. Gambling addicts may become excessively preoccupied with the act of gambling itself and not necessarily with winning or...
Doctors disagree on whether there is a true addictive personality, and the term is rarely used in formal medicine. However, a number of signs and signals tend to appear in people with addictions. Doctors and psychologists can often spot them, and...
Understanding teenagers is baffling subjects. Parents can testify that every day with their teens seems like a dice roll, if the dice were live explosives. But you don’t have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. The decisions that...
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, problem and pathological gambling affects about 5 million to 15 million Americans. It is common in young people and is not restricted to any particular social class.
Many factors contribute to volatile teenagers including stress, hormones, social pressures, dealing with intense emotions or following negative role models. Because teenagers have not yet developed mature impulse control, an angry teen may throw...
Attention deficit disorder, or ADD, is also referred to as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It is a disorder of certain mechanisms of the central nervous system, which affects a person's ability to concentrate and focus....
ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is a neurobiological condition that affects concentration and impulse control. Children with ADHD are often disorganized and unfocused, and may also be hyperactive and difficult to control. There...
Vitamin C is of critical importance to brain development and health. Among its many functions, vitamin C is involved with chemical processes that have direct effects on behavior. Without vitamin C, the brain does not sufficient materials for...
Dopamine is a chemical that is used by both the central and peripheral nervous systems, where it performs diverse functions that range from controlling movement and coding reward in the brain to regulating blood flow in the periphery. It is...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a behavioral disorder characterized by difficulties with social, behavioral and learning functions and impulse control. The severity of this disorder varies with each child. ADHD affects up to...
Fetal alcohol syndrome is a condition that can occur if a woman drinks while she is pregnant. The more a woman drinks while she is pregnant, the greater the chance she will have a baby born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol that a pregnant...
Fetal alcohol syndrome, known as FAS, is a condition that results from prenatal alcohol exposure. There is a wide range of severity of fetal alcohol syndrome disorders, and these are all covered under the newer umbrella term of FASD. According to...
The obsessive urge to pull hair is called trichotillomania. Trichotillomania is a psychiatric impulse control disorder, which sometimes co-occurs with obsessive compulsive disorder or body dysmorphic disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic,...
Dopamine dysregulation syndrome, otherwise known as hedonistic homeostatic dysregulation in Parkinson's disease, is a disorder characterized by the degeneration of the dopaminergic system. The condition commonly occurs in people with Parkinson's...
Some children have difficult temperaments, poor impulse control or emotional and behavioral problems. Learn how to cope with a difficult child in this parenting video.
Meditation can assist the ADHD adult with mental focus and control. Yoga, martial arts and dance are a few physical activities that may help an adult with ADHD. Learn how to live with adult ADHD in this free video.
