What is Internet Gaming Disorder?

This study also found that “Internet gaming disorder, …, affects a small subset of the population exposed to online games, and does not appear to have increased in prevalence to the extent the [I]nternet usage has increased.” Data shows “[s]ignificant overlap in the neurobiology underlying both [gaming and Internet] addictions and substance use disorders have been found in animal models and human brain imaging studies.” People with IGD can have similar symptoms to people with substance abuse disorders including building tolerance for the activity (i.e. needing more) and having withdrawal symptoms. Another study of the addictive potential for the Internet in adolescent (12-19 years) generalized Internet users (GIU) and Internet gamers (IG) found that gaming had the strongest addictive potential in boys followed by social networking and chatting (β= 0.29, 0.19, and 0.17 respectively). For girls, chatting and social networking had the strongest addictive potential followed by gaming (β= 0.24, 0.23, and 0.14 respectively). Other activities evaluated included gambling, sexual content, shopping, emailing and researching information. Overall problematic IG had more psychosocial problems including high psychosocial burden and dysfunctional coping strategies, than non-problematic IG. IGD and high levels of Internet use are being recognized as public health problems and the World Health Organization and various countries are evaluating or maki...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news