Internet Addiction

The day began on a high note. As I sat and talked with an elderly patient sitting in her wheelchair, quiet, not remembering much, she suddenly broke out in song.

Frame analysis can not only help us to discern the roots of such standoffs but also to conceptualize specific ways of addressing the conflicts in therapeutic language with the patient, with the goal of forging an integrated approach to treatment.

'Internet addiction disorder' (IAD) is rapidly becoming a prevalent mental health concern in many countries around the world. The neurobiological underpinnings of internet addiction should be studied to unravel the potential heterogeneity in the disorder. The present study examines the neural correlates of response inhibition in males with and without IAD using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Stroop task. The IAD group demonstrated significantly greater 'Stroop effect'-related activity in the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices compared with their healthy peers. These results may suggest diminished efficiency of response-inhibition processes in the IAD group relative to healthy controls.

While adolescent internet addicts are immersed in cyberspace, they are easily able to experience 'disembodied state'. The purposes of this study were to investigate the difference of brain activity between adolescent internet addicts and normal adolescents in a state of disembodiment, and to find the correlation between the activities of disembodiment-related areas and the behavioral characteristics related to internet addiction. The fMRI images were taken while the addiction group (N=17) and the control group (N=17) were asked to perform the task composed with ball-throwing animations. The task reflected on either self-agency about ball-throwing or location of a ball. And each block was shown with either different (Changing View) or same animations (Fixed View). The disembodiment-related condition was the interaction between Agency Task and Changing View. Within-group analyses revealed that the addiction group exhibited higher activation in the thalamus, bilateral precentral area,

Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is increasingly recognized as a widespread disorder with serious psychological and health consequences. Diminished white matter integrity has been demonstrated in a wide range of other addictive disorders which share clinical characteristics with IGA. Abnormal white matter integrity in addictive populations has been associated with addiction severity, treatment response and cognitive impairments. This study assessed white matter integrity in individuals with internet gaming addiction (IGA) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). IGA subjects (N=16) showed higher fractional anisotropy (FA), indicating greater white matter integrity, in the thalamus and left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) relative to healthy controls (N=15). Higher FA in the thalamus was associated with greater severity of internet addiction. Increased regional FA in individuals with internet gaming addiction may be a pre-existing vulnerability factor for IGA, or may arise

The study explores the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance of the Video game Addiction Test (VAT). Game-addiction problems are often linked to Internet enabled online games; the VAT has the unique benefit that it is theoretically and empirically linked to Internet addiction. The study used data (n=2,894) from a large-sample paper-and-pencil questionnaire study, conducted in 2009 on secondary schools in Netherlands. Thus, the main source of data was a large sample of schoolchildren (aged 13-16 years). Measurements included the proposed VAT, the Compulsive Internet Use Scale, weekly hours spent on various game types, and several psychosocial variables. The VAT demonstrated excellent reliability, excellent construct validity, a one-factor model fit, and a high degree of measurement invariance across gender, ethnicity, and learning year, indicating that the scale outcomes can be compared across different subgroups with little bias. In summary, the VAT can be helpful in the

This study aimed to investigate Internet use patterns and Internet addiction among young adult university students and to examine the correlation between excessive Internet use and dissociative symptoms.|The study was conducted among 1034 students, aged between 18 and 27 years. Internet Addiction Scale, Dissociative Experiences Scale, and a sociodemographic query form were used in the collection of data. Pearson correlation analysis, the t test, and (2) test were used for data analysis.|According to the Internet Addiction Scale, 9.7% of the study sample was addicted to the Internet. The Pearson correlation analysis results revealed a significant positive correlation between dissociative experiences and Internet addiction (r = 0.220; P < .001) and weekly Internet use (r = 0.227; P < .001). Levels of Internet addiction were significantly higher among male students than female students (P < .001). The Internet use pattern also differed significantly between sexes.|According to the