Report from IMO/BMA conference
A special all-Ireland conference on mental health and addiction has heard of a rise in 'process' addictions in Ireland, including gambling and internet gaming.
Dr Colin O'Gara, consultant psychiatrist and head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital in Dublin, told the conference that process or behavioural addictions were similar to substance addictions, but focused on behaviours rather than substances.
Such additions included gambling and internet gaming.
The conference took place in Dublin and was organised jointly by the IMO and the BMA NI (British Medical Association in NI).
Dr O'Gara said that gambling was now increasingly recognised as an addiction internationally.
He estimated that between 5pc and 7pc of the Irish population could be at risk from addiction to gambling with an estimated 1pc of the population suffering a severe gambling addiction.