Discusses the increasing use of Internet across the world and notes controversy over the term 'Internet addiction'. Defines addiction and examines the concept of problem video game use (PGVU) ...regarding the addiction of online video games. Reviews classifications in the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Proposes an alternative conceptualisation of internet addiction. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
The relationship between hypochondriasis and health anxiety is examined by considering a DSM-5 proposal to replace the current heterogeneous concept of hypochondriasis with two disorders. The key ...issues are to ascertain whether these conditions are relatively distinct and whether they adequately represent the full range of clinical manifestations encompassed by hypochondriasis.
•Medium relationship between health anxiety and online health information seeking.•Strong relationship between health anxiety and measures of cyberchondria.•Age moderated relationship between health ...anxiety and cyberchondria.
Cyberchondria refers to an abnormal behavioral pattern in which excessive or repeated online searches for health-related information are distressing or anxiety-provoking. Health anxiety has been found to be associated with both online health information seeking and cyberchondria. The aims of the present systematic review and meta-analysis were to examine the magnitude of these associations and identify any moderator variables.
A systematic literature search was performed across several databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase) and reference lists of included studies.
Twenty studies were included across two independent meta-analyses, with 7373 participants. Random effects meta-analyses showed that there was a positive correlation between health anxiety and online health information seeking r = 0.34, 95% CI (0.20, 0.48), p < .0001, and between health anxiety and cyberchondria r = 0.62, 95% CI (0.52, 0.71), p < .0001. A meta-regression indicated that the age of study participants Q(1) = 4.58, p = .03 was partly responsible for the heterogeneity found for the relationship between health anxiety and cyberchondria.
The generalizability and validity of our findings are restricted by the methodological limitations of the primary studies, namely, an over-reliance on a single measure of cyberchondria, the Cyberchondria Severity Scale.
Our review found a positive correlation between health anxiety and online health information seeking, and between health anxiety and cyberchondria. Further research should aim to explore the contexts for these associations as well as address the identified limitations of the extant literature.
Recent Insights Into Cyberchondria Starcevic, Vladan; Berle, David; Arnáez, Sandra
Current psychiatry reports,
11/2020, Letnik:
22, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Purpose of Review
The construct of cyberchondria was introduced relatively recently. This article aims to review the conceptualization, theoretical basis and correlates of cyberchondria, as well as ...its prevention and management.
Recent Findings
Although there is no consensus, most definitions of cyberchondria emphasize online health research associated with heightened distress or anxiety. The two theoretical models of cyberchondria involve reassurance seeking and specific metacognitive beliefs. Cyberchondria has relationships with health anxiety, problematic Internet use and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, with public health implications pertaining to functional impairment and altered healthcare utilization. Suggestions about prevention and management of cyberchondria have been put forward, but not tested yet.
Summary
Research interest in cyberchondria has steadily increased. It is uncertain whether cyberchondria can be considered a distinct entity. Future research should aim to clarify the conceptual status of cyberchondria, quantify its impact and develop evidence-based approaches for a better control of cyberchondria.
The COVID-19 pandemic has tested people's coping and resilience. This article reviews research and scholarly work aiming to shed more light on personality-based factors that account for adjustment to ...the pandemic situation.
Most studies relied on a cross-sectional design and were conducted using personality dimensions based on the Big Five personality model. Findings suggest that high levels of neuroticism constitute a risk for pandemic-induced distress and poor overall coping. People with prominent extraversion, conscientiousness or agreeableness have generally demonstrated a good adjustment to the pandemic, including compliance with containment and mitigation measures imposed by the authorities to limit the spread of COVID-19. A few studies of individuals with borderline personality disorder identified social isolation as the most destabilising factor for them. Poor compliance with containment and mitigation measures has been strongly associated with various antisocial personality traits.
Personality-based factors account for some individual differences in coping with both COVID-19-related threat and distress and requirements to comply with containment and mitigation measures. Better understanding of these factors could contribute to a more effective adjustment to the challenges of future public health crises.
The paper “Chaos and confusion in DSM-5 diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder: Issues, concerns, and recommendations for clarity in the field” by Kuss, Griffiths, and Pontes (in press) critically ...examines the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and addresses the issue of whether IGD should be reconceptualized as gaming disorder, regardless of whether video games are played online or offline. This commentary provides additional critical perspectives on the concept of IGD. Methods: The focus of this commentary is on the addiction model on which the concept of IGD is based, the nature of the DSM-5 criteria for IGD, and the inclusion of withdrawal symptoms and tolerance as the diagnostic criteria for IGD. Results: The addiction framework on which the DSM-5 concept of IGD is based is not without problems and represents only one of multiple theoretical approaches to problematic gaming. The polythetic, non-hierarchical DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for IGD make the concept of IGD unacceptably heterogeneous. There is no support for maintaining withdrawal symptoms and tolerance as the diagnostic criteria for IGD without their substantial revision. Conclusions: The addiction model of IGD is constraining and does not contribute to a better understanding of the various patterns of problematic gaming. The corresponding diagnostic criteria need a thorough overhaul, which should be based on a model of problematic gaming that can accommodate its disparate aspects.
Cyberchondria (CYB) has been described relatively recently as a behaviour characterized by excessive online searching for medical information that is associated with increasing levels of health ...anxiety. Although CYB has received some attention from researchers, there is no consensus about many of its aspects.
We describe one of the first reported cases of a treatment-seeking patient with CYB. We review the published literature on the definition of CYB, its assessment, epidemiology, cost and burden, psychological models and mechanisms associated with CYB, relationships between CYB and mental disorders and prevention and treatment strategies.
Systematic review of all peer-reviewed papers published within the PubMed, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library databases.
61 articles were selected. Nearly all the studies were descriptive and cross-sectional recruiting sample mainly from the general/university student population and collecting self-report data via online surveys. Data on epidemiology, clinical features, course, comorbidity and therapeutic interventions were scarce. CYB showed a self-reported association with health anxiety, hypochondriasis and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as well as other forms of problematic usage of the internet (PUI) The psychological mechanisms associated with CYB include low self-esteem, anxiety sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, pain catastrophizing and certain meta-cognitive beliefs.
A working definition of CYB includes excessive online health searches that are compulsive and may serve the purpose of seeking reassurance, whilst leading to a worsening of anxiety or distress and further negative consequences. CYB represents a clinically relevant transdiagnostic compulsive behavioural syndrome, closely related to PUI and usually presenting in association with health anxiety, hypochondriasis and/or OCD. CYB is clearly in need of further study and we identify key areas for future research.
•The article provides a systematic review of cyberchondria (CYB).•CYB is defined as online health searches with a worsening of anxiety or distress.•CYB is compulsive and often characterized by reassurance seeking.•CYB is a transdiagnostic compulsive syndrome related to problematic Internet use.•CYB is often associated with health anxiety, hypochondriasis and/or OCD.
Cyberbullying: Review of an Old Problem Gone Viral Aboujaoude, Elias, M.D., M.A; Savage, Matthew W., Ph.D; Starcevic, Vladan, M.D., Ph.D ...
Journal of adolescent health,
07/2015, Letnik:
57, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract Purpose Despite being relatively new, cyberbullying is now well recognized as a serious public health problem affecting children and adolescents. Scientific exploration has lagged media ...attention, but a synthesis of studies across several disciplines permits an understanding of its epidemiology, phenomenology, mental health dimensions, and management tools. Methods To assess current knowledge of cyberbullying, we searched the MEDLINE, PubMed and PsycINFO databases for articles on “cyberbullying” and related designations. The Google search engine was used to capture otherwise unpublished legislative, governmental, and community response data and to help identify relevant books and book chapters. Results A significant proportion of children and adolescents (20%–40%) have been victims of cyberbullying, with females and sexual minorities seemingly at higher risk. Perpetrators are more likely to be male. By nature of the electronic platform, there seems to be an easier path to the bully-victim phenomenon (victims who become bullies or vice versa) than that in traditional bullying. A nonlinear relationship with age is suggested, but demographic data overall are preliminary. Accompanying psychopathology, including an increasingly well-established link to suicidality, is common. Several prevention and management approaches have been proposed to help prevent cyberbullying or mitigate its effects. Discussion Cyberbullying's seeming ubiquity, its disproportionate toll on vulnerable populations (e.g., children and sexual minorities), the link with suicidality, and the expected continued rise in Internet penetrance and connectivity make confronting it an urgent matter. A multipronged approach is most likely to succeed and would include: educational media campaigns; school-based programs; parental oversight and involvement; legislative action; and screening and evidence-based interventions by health care providers, especially pediatricians and mental health professionals. Conclusions More research is needed into cyberbullying, but available data suggest a serious problem whose consequences are real and should not be dismissed as a “virtual” by-product of an increasingly digitalized childhood and adolescence.
In this article, we present the development and psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Assessment of COVID-19--Related Fears (MAC-RF). The MAC-RF is an eight-item, self-report scale that has ...been developed to assess clinically relevant domains of fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. The MAC-RF is based on a comprehensive theoretical model conceptualizing fears during the pandemics as resulting from an interaction of bodily, interpersonal, cognitive, and behavioral experiences. The MAC-RF was administered to a sample of 623 Italian adults from the community aged between 18 and 76 years old (M= 35.67, SD= 12.93), along with a measure of current clinical symptoms. Item response theory analyses demonstrated that each item of the MAC-RF provided sufficient information about the underlying construct of fear. The statistical fit of the scale was satisfactory. MAC-RF total scores correlated significantly and positively with total scores on the measure of psychopathology and with the clinical symptom domain scores. A ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve analysis showed that the MAC-RF total score was sufficiently able to identify cases with high levels of current psychopathology, with an area under the curve of.76. These findings suggest that the MAC-RF can be used to assess pathological fear during pandemics. The English, Italian, and French versions of the MAC-RF are annexed to this article for use by clinicians and health services.
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