The following commentary expands on previous work on treating individuals diagnosed with behavioral addictions (BA) and co-occurring disorders (COD), suggesting a comprehensive-collaborative care model to enhance individual treatment protocols. It examines definitions and the challenges of aligning them with substance use disorders (SUD) in classification systems, noting dissonance among scholars and lack of research hindering acceptance by the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization. Exclusion of many BA from the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 hinders professional education, patient care at all levels, and future research. An overview of BA is discussed with support for inclusion based on previous work and research. Accepted frameworks including the biopsychosocial (BPS) are recommended to support culturally sensitive, comprehensive-collaborative care and are included in a case presentation and analysis applying the proposed model. This commentary underscores the proposal for a pedagogical shift to educate providers to treat those with BA and COD from an interdisciplinary and philosophically similar method to advance prevention and treatment protocols aligned with comprehensive-collaborative care.

Behavioral addiction, Comprehensive collaborative care, Co-occurring disorders