University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Science Research Institute, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
J Behav Addict. 2014 Mar;3(1):78-81. doi: 10.1556/JBA.3.2014.008. Epub 2014 Feb 3.
Controversies remain about the validity of the diagnosis of problematic Internet use. This might be due in part to the lack of longitudinal naturalistic studies that have followed a cohort of patients who self-identify as having Internet-related problems.
This retrospective study included 57 patients who consulted the Geneva Addiction Outpatient Clinic from January 1, 2007, to January 1, 2010. Patients underwent an initial clinical psychiatric evaluation that included collection of data on socio-demographics, method of referral, specific Internet usage, psychiatric diagnosis, and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) scores. Treatment consisted of individual psychotherapeutic sessions.
Of these patients, 98% were male and 37% were 18 years or younger. Most patients were online gamers (46% playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games). The mean IAT score was 52.9 (range 20-90). Sixty-eight percent of patients had a co-morbid psychiatric diagnosis, with social phobia being the most prevalent (17.8%). Patients who remained in treatment (dropout rate 24%) showed an overall improvement of symptoms: 38.6% showed significant or average improvement on their CGI score, 26.3% showed minimal improvement, and 14% showed no change.
Our results support the hypothesis that there are specific types of Internet use, with online gaming mainly affecting young male patients. As Internet addiction is not yet an official diagnosis, better instruments are needed to screen patients and to avoid false-negative and false-positive diagnoses. Successful care should integrate the treatment of co-morbid symptoms and involve families and relatives in the therapeutic process.
关于问题性互联网使用的诊断有效性仍存在争议。部分原因可能是缺乏对自我识别为存在互联网相关问题的患者队列进行的纵向自然主义研究。
这项回顾性研究纳入了 2007 年 1 月 1 日至 2010 年 1 月 1 日期间在日内瓦成瘾门诊就诊的 57 名患者。患者接受了初步的临床精神病学评估，包括收集社会人口统计学、转诊方法、特定互联网使用、精神诊断以及互联网成瘾测试（IAT）和临床总体印象量表（CGI）评分的数据。治疗包括个体心理治疗。
这些患者中，98%为男性，37%年龄在 18 岁或以下。大多数患者是网络游戏玩家（46%玩大型多人在线角色扮演游戏）。IAT 平均得分为 52.9（范围 20-90）。68%的患者存在共病精神诊断，社交恐惧症最为常见（17.8%）。继续治疗的患者（辍学率为 24%）表现出症状的总体改善：38.6%的患者在 CGI 评分上有显著或平均改善，26.3%有轻微改善，14%无变化。
我们的结果支持以下假设，即存在特定类型的互联网使用，网络游戏主要影响年轻男性患者。由于互联网成瘾尚未成为正式诊断，因此需要更好的工具来筛选患者，避免假阴性和假阳性诊断。成功的治疗应整合共病症状的治疗，并让家庭和亲属参与治疗过程。
