ABSTRACT
Impulse-control disorders are disorders in which the person acts on an impulse that is potentially harmful and that he or she fails to resist. The impulses are usually perceived as pleasurable (egosyntonic). There is an increasing sense of wishing to commit the act, with a sense of pleasure occurring once the act has been committed. These disorders have also been conceptualized as non-substance related addictions. They do not represent personality disorders. They are described in the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as impulse-control disorders1 and in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ICD-10 as habit and impulse disorders.2
