Pathological Internet Use—An Important Comorbidity in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Prevalence and Correlation Patterns in a Naturalistic Sample of Adolescent Inpatients

Abstract

Background Few studies have examined the prevalence of problematic internet use (PIU) in young people undergoing inpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry centers. The aims of our study were thus (a) to assess the frequency of comorbid PIU in a sample of adolescent psychiatric inpatients and compare it with a control group of nonreferred adolescents and (b) to gain insights into correlations between PIU and psychiatric comorbidities. Methods 111 child and adolescent psychiatry inpatients (CAP-IP, mean age 15.1 ± 1.4 years; female : male 72.4% : 27.6%) undergoing routine psychodiagnostics were screened for the presence of PIU. The widely used Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) was chosen for this purpose. Prevalence rates of PIU were then compared to matched nonreferred control subjects from a school sample. Additionally, comorbidities of inpatients with PIU were compared to inpatients without PIU. Results Our inpatient sample showed a much higher prevalence of PIU than that found in previous populational samples of young people. Compared with a matched school sample, addictive internet use was 7.8 times higher and problematic internet use 3.3 times higher among our adolescent sample. PIU was significantly associated with characteristic patterns of psychopathology, that is, suicidality, difficulties in establishing stable and consolidated identity, and peer victimization. Conclusion PIU among adolescents undergoing inpatient psychiatric treatment is much more frequent than among their peers in the general population and is associated with specific patterns of psychopathology.

Prevalence and Interpersonal Correlates of Internet Gaming Disorders among Chinese Adolescents

“…According to the report of UNESCO [28], one-third of the children and adolescents worldwide had been bullied, while 5%-21% of the children and adolescents had been experienced cyberbullying. Previous studies found that peer bullying was significantly associated with IGD among college students [29] and pathological Internet use among adolescents [30]. Online bullying has also been anecdotally and empirically linked to multiple maladaptive emotional and behavioral outcomes among adolescents, such as depression, substance use, and suicide [31,32].…”

Prospective associations between internet use and poor mental health: A population-based study

“…[4][5][6][7] A growing number of studies have found an association between high levels of internet use in young people and poor mental health, including depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, hostility/aggression, suicidal ideation, and self-harm. [3,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However, most existing research is based on cross-sectional data and so the temporal relationship between mental health problems and internet use is currently unclear. The lack of longitudinal studies assessing the consequences of screen-based activities was recently highlighted as a key limitation in the field.…”

Prevalence of Internet Addiction and its Association with Self Perceived Life Quality in Shenzhen Adolescents

“…It is characterized by symptoms including: (1) need for extending online time (tolerance), (2) withdrawal symptoms, (3) inadequate control on Internet use, (4) continuation of Internet use disregarding to problem awareness, (5) excessive online time, (6) negative consequences [5,6]. A bunch of terms were used in literature to describe this condition, such as Pathological Internet Use [7], Internet Abuse [8], Internet Use Disorder, Problematic Internet Use [9] and etc. In the third section of the Fifth Edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) [10], which proposed conditions for future study, Internet Gaming Disorder is included as a potential diagnosis for further discussion.…”