Research reveals 1 in 20 college students has ‘internet gaming disorder’
Is it possible to become addicted to gaming on the internet?
Yes, warns new research that discovered when young people get too hooked it may trigger sleep difficulties, depression, anxiety and, in some cases, even suicidal thoughts.
Phone interviews conducted among nearly 3,000 American college students between 2007 and 2015 revealed that roughly 1 in 20 had “internet gaming disorder,” a clinical condition defined by the compulsive use of electronics, both online and offline.
“Like with any addiction, to be considered a disorder, internet gaming must cause disturbances in daily life,” said study author Dr. Maurice Ohayon, director of the Stanford Sleep
Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
One example: “Playing (online) until late in the night, and then having difficulties to get up in the morning to go to class or to work, or simply skipping classes,” Ohayon said.
Ohayon also found that the behavior was linked to a higher-than-normal risk for “feeling unrested when they wake up, being fatigued, feeling depressed and having social anxiety.”
Does that definitively mean that gaming disorder directly causes poor mental and physical health? No, said Ohayon, who cautioned that not enough is known about the disorder, and “causality cannot be inferred.”
Still, he and his colleague found evidence that “many elements — such as feeling depressed, social anxiety, having very few friends, being unhappy with social life, and suicidal (thoughts) — pointed to social isolation or loneliness among students with internet gaming disorder.”
Student interviews lasted about 75 minutes, on average. Internet gaming disorder was diagnosed only if a student reported using the internet and/or an electronic device for at least 15 hours per week and indicated at least five ongoing behavioral issues, such as missing class; feeling guilty about internet habits; loss of ambition or efficiency; or behaving carelessly.
The team found that 5.3% of those interviewed had the disorder.
The findings were published online recently in the journal Psychiatry Research.