Game Transfer Phenomena in a Clinical Case with Psychosis and Gaming Disorder

Abstract

Little is known about the interplay of Gaming Disorder (GD) with psychotic processes in schizophrenia. Only a few clinical cases involving video game playing and psychotic symptoms have been previously reported in literature. This case report describes a 24-year-old male diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and GD. Our case, Patient G, had premorbid excessive video game playing and Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) prior to the onset of his schizophrenia illness. GTP are common among gamers and are characterised by abnormal perceptions, intrusive thoughts, and temporal change on behaviours related to the content of video games. However, GTP are not necessarily of delusional intensity for meeting the threshold of psychosis. The relapse in Patient G’s paranoid schizophrenia was associated with recent cannabis use, social withdrawal, and excessive video game playing. Patient G’s psychotic symptoms were influenced by video game themes and the movie “Matrix”, including the delusion that he was in a video game and that people around him were “non-playable characters”. Awareness of GTP can help clinicians to demarcate GTP from psychotic features and identify their interactions, given the ensuing treatment implications. Our case report highlights the importance of GTP, which in some cases may be an early sign of developing mental illness and could have implications for early intervention and prevention of illness onset and complications.

Correlation among game addiction, achievement emotion, and learning motivation: A study of Indonesian youth in the context of e-learning system

“…While games are intended for recreation and entertainment, they have the potential to consume a significant amount of players' time and can have a considerable impact on players' well-being (Barr & Copeland-Stewart, 2022). Individuals become isolated from others because they are excessively engrossed in gaming (Le et al, 2023). Consequently, it hinders the development of their personalities, social abilities, and social lives (Ko et al, 2005;Kowert et al, 2014), leading to emotions of isolation and loneliness (Mandryk et al, 2020).…”