Abstract
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a new disorder that warrants further investigation, as recently noted in the research criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Offering controlled environments that increase cue-induced craving, virtual reality cue-exposure therapy has been shown to be effective for some addiction disorders. To assess the feasibility of virtual reality for patients with IGD, this study aimed to develop virtual environments that represent risk situations for inducing craving, and assess the effect of virtual reality in cue reactivity. A total of 64 male adolescents and young adults (34 with IGD and 30 without) were recruited for participation. We developed a virtual internet café environment and the participants were exposed to four different tasks. As the primary feasibility outcome, cravings were measured with a visual analogue scale measuring current urge to play a game after exposure to each task. The virtual internet café induced significantly greater cravings in patients with IGD compared to controls. Additionally, patients exhibited a significantly higher acceptance rate of an avatar’s invitation to play a game together than that of controls. In IGD, craving response to the tasks was positively associated with the symptom severity score as measured by Young's Internet Addiction Test. These findings reveal that virtual reality laden with complex game-related cues could evoke game craving in patients with IGD and could be used in the treatment of IGD as a cue-exposure therapy tool for eliciting craving.
Highlights
Internet gaming disorder (IGD), as recently included in the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), has become a serious public health problem [1,2,3]
We aimed to examine whether adolescents and young adults with IGD react to a virtual internet cafe differently compared with controls
A mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) of visual analogue scale (VAS) craving scores revealed a main effect of Group (F[1,62]=36.096, p
Summary
Internet gaming disorder (IGD), as recently included in the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), has become a serious public health problem [1,2,3]. Because of a rapid rise in internet use, especially among adolescents and young adults, maladaptive use of the internet most commonly occurs in this developmental period [4]. As a transitional developmental stage between childhood and adulthood, adolescence is a critical period for addiction vulnerability [5]. Several studies have reported that adolescents and young adults generally show higher rates of experimentation with and problematic use of substances and gambling than older adults, and adults with a diagnosis of addictive disorders commonly show onset during this period [6,7]. Behavioral, and neurobiological development continues throughout adolescence and young adulthood, an addictive disorder during this time could even lead to alteration in brain organization and function [8,9]. Research and treatment targeting adolescents and young adults with addictive disorders may provide life-long benefits
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