Pape Magdalena, Reichrath Benedict, Bottel Laura, Herpertz Stephan, Kessler Henrik, Dieris-Hirche Jan
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, LWL-University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
Heinrich Heine University, Department of Clinical Psychology, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Sep;229:103698. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103698. Epub 2022 Aug 5.
Social and emotional deficits are assumed to be involved in the development and maintenance of internet gaming disorder (IGD). Alexithymia refers to a personality construct, which is characterized by deficits in emotional awareness and processing. The constructs of alexithymia and depression share similarities, and depression is a common comorbidity of IGD patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between alexithymia and IGD when controlling for depression symptom severity. Moreover, we compared alexithymia traits of IGD patients with those of non-pathological video gamers.
In a cross-sectional study n = 38 male IGD patients (EG) were recruited at specialized healthcare services in Germany. In addition, n = 39 male non-pathological video gamers (CG) were recruited via social media and bulletin board announcement. Both groups completed questionnaires measuring alexithymia (TAS-20), depression symptom severity (BDI) and IGD severity (s-IAT).
Alexithymia and depression symptom severity both predicted IGD severity. Yet, when including both factors in multiple regression analysis, only alexithymia predicted IGD severity. The prevalence of alexithymia in the EG was 34.2 % (n = 13). None of the non-pathological video gamers scored above the cut-off indicating alexithymia. IGD patients showed higher traits of alexithymia in general and on each subscale, irrespective of whether or not they were currently consuming video games. As previously observed, depression symptom severity was significantly greater in IGD patients compared to healthy video gamers. Yet, group differences in alexithymia traits remained stable, with a ~29 % decrease of effectiveness in the relationship, when controlling for depression symptom severity and sociodemographic factors.
The results reveal that alexithymia is associated with and predicts IGD severity independently of depression symptom severity. Moreover, alexithymia is highly prevalent in IGD patients.
社交和情感缺陷被认为与网络游戏障碍（IGD）的发展和维持有关。述情障碍是一种人格特质，其特征是情感意识和处理能力存在缺陷。述情障碍和抑郁症的特质有相似之处，且抑郁症是IGD患者常见的共病。本研究的目的是在控制抑郁症状严重程度的情况下，分析述情障碍与IGD之间的关系。此外，我们比较了IGD患者与非病理性视频游戏玩家的述情障碍特质。
在一项横断面研究中，从德国的专业医疗服务机构招募了n = 38名男性IGD患者（实验组）。此外，通过社交媒体和公告板招募了n = 39名男性非病理性视频游戏玩家（对照组）。两组都完成了测量述情障碍（多伦多述情障碍量表20项版，TAS - 20）、抑郁症状严重程度（贝克抑郁量表，BDI）和IGD严重程度（症状自评内隐联想测验，s - IAT）的问卷。
述情障碍和抑郁症状严重程度均能预测IGD严重程度。然而，在多元回归分析中纳入这两个因素时，只有述情障碍能预测IGD严重程度。实验组中述情障碍的患病率为34.2%（n = 13）。没有一名非病理性视频游戏玩家的得分高于表明述情障碍的临界值。IGD患者总体上以及在每个子量表上都表现出更高的述情障碍特质，无论他们当前是否在玩电子游戏。如先前观察到的，与健康的视频游戏玩家相比，IGD患者的抑郁症状严重程度显著更高。然而，在控制抑郁症状严重程度和社会人口学因素后，述情障碍特质的组间差异仍然稳定，二者关系的效应大小下降了约29%。
结果表明，述情障碍与IGD严重程度相关，且能独立于抑郁症状严重程度预测IGD严重程度。此外，述情障碍在IGD患者中高度普遍。
