addiction

The severity of America's gambling addiction isn't too far behind the nation's drug problem, and it's growing. In 2007, Americans lost more than $92 billion gambling, almost 10 times more than what U.S. moviegoers spent on tickets -- and about nine times what they lost 15 years earlier.

The rich, powerful and addicted are often willing to pay big bucks to get clean and sober -- but just how much? DailyFinance checked out three of the priciest dry-out retreats in the world. One month's bill at any of the following would be enough to scare many of us straight.

Singers Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse both checked back into drug rehab in May. The rich and famous, of course, have the means to bounce in and out of pricey addiction-treatment centers, but what's the real cost of rehab for regular folks trying clean up their lives?

March Madness is winding down, and if you've played the brackets, this stat from the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) probably won't surprise you: 75% of college students have gambled in the last year. Both legal and illegal gambling have high addiction rates....

A new World Health Organization report finds excessive alcohol use results in 2.5 million deaths annually. That's more than those caused by HIV/AIDS, violence or tuberculosis. The study notes that alcohol is a far bigger danger than illegal drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin.

Anyone who has played a video game has experienced the desire to keep going even when work, school -- even Mom -- calls for him to put down the controller and walk away. While most gamers can step away from the virtual world, some can not. Craig Smallwood of Hawaii couldn't, so he filed a lawsuit....

Are people who eat lots of junk food addicts? A new study provides evidence that some people who consume a lot of junk food experience cravings much like drug addicts do, require increasingly larger amounts of food to feel good, and have an even harder time quitting.

Americans are getting fatter and some legislators are looking to tax junk food to control obesity. Based on the history of how heavily taxing cigarettes changed personal behavior, extra taxes on soda may stop people from sugaring themselves to death. When I started to smoke, at age 13, cigarettes...

Not two months after the Swiss start-up Cytos's experimental anti-smoking vaccine failed in a mid-stage study, Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NABI) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have signed a licensing agreement for Nabi's own anti-smoking vaccine, NicVAX. The deal, which could potentially be worth more than...

An experimental cocaine vaccine may help addicts end their addictions by inhibiting the drug's effects on the brain -- that is, preventing the high -- according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse sponsored study released this week. Cocaine addiction, which the Archives of General Psychiatry says...