| 05/29/2012 -ATIN- In a cloistered and as high powered a behavioral health and addictions academic grouping as has existed in decades, the key DSM tome is finally updating, enhancing and expanding the definition of addiction, with new definitions due to be published in the spring of next year. Because the DSM is the reference manual used to define mental illness by virtually every institution – courts, insurance cos, hospitals, doctors, etc…- the new addictions definitions are expected to literally transform the treatment of addiction and will have enormous consequences for treatment centers across the nation. One of the major changes, and one that will likely open the cash spigots in an area that for decades has struggled to gain access to private institutional funding like health insurance, gambling for the first time will be included and defined as an addiction. Because the DSM carries such weight, it is likely that health insurers will become much more open to funding treatment for gambling, which until now has relied largely on private pay and state and gambling industry sources to fund treatment. The new DSM treatment of gambling is likely to present itself as a significant business opportunity for those centers, such as Rimrock Foundation in Montana and the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, that have developed top notch national reputations for the treatment of gambling addiction as they may be able to establish groundbreaking new funding with health insurers influenced by the new DSM criteria. Also included in the new DSM addictions definitions will be a new “behavioral addiction” definition that will likely include sex, shopping and other such problems, potentially opening up funding for these also difficult to fund addictions programs. |
