Swiss get first behavioural addiction treatment service
For the first time in Switzerland, those suffering from behavioural addictions such as gambling, shopping, internet and sex addition can be treated as inpatients.
The new inpatient service is intended to treat more severe cases of addictions, announced the University Psychiatric Clinics BaselExternal link on Friday.
The department offering 12 treatment places opened its doors earlier this month. The average treatment time is six weeks. So far, most patients suffer from gambling or internet and computer addictions.
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The Basel-based clinic had already opened an outpatient clinicExternal link for behaviour disorders in this year. In the first half of 2018, a total of 102 were treated.
Several thousand people in Basel City canton alone are affected by behavioural addiction, estimates the clinic.
Even conservative estimates assume that about one percent of the Swiss population suffer from gambling addiction, about two percent from internet addiction, three percent from sex addiction and five percent from shopping addiction.
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