Addiction to technology is emerging as a serious medical condition, not just an exaggeration of everyday social and personal ailments of the 21st century. Technological Addictions provides guidance ...found nowhere else, guidance that both clinicians and laypeople will find useful and compelling.
Purpose of Review
The COVID-19 pandemic changed people’s lifestyles and such changed lifestyles included the potential of increasing addictive behaviors. The present systematic review and ...meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of different behavioral addictions (i.e., internet addiction, smartphone addiction, gaming addiction, social media addiction, food addiction, exercise addiction, gambling addiction, and shopping addiction) both overall and separately.
Recent Findings
Four databases (
PubMed
,
Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge
, and
ProQuest
) were searched. Peer-reviewed papers published in English between December 2019 and July 2022 were reviewed and analyzed. Search terms were selected using PECO-S criteria: population (no limitation in participants’ characteristics), exposure (COVID-19 pandemic), comparison (healthy populations), outcome (frequency or prevalence of behavioral addiction), and study design (observational study). A total of 94 studies with 237,657 participants from 40 different countries (mean age 25.02 years; 57.41% females). The overall prevalence of behavioral addiction irrespective of addiction type (after correcting for publication bias) was 11.1% (95%
CI
: 5.4 to 16.8%). The prevalence rates for each separate behavioral addiction (after correcting for publication bias) were 10.6% for internet addiction, 30.7% for smartphone addiction, 5.3% for gaming addiction, 15.1% for social media addiction, 21% for food addiction, 9.4% for sex addiction, 7% for exercise addiction, 7.2% for gambling addiction, and 7.2% for shopping addiction. In the lockdown periods, prevalence of food addiction, gaming addiction, and social media addiction was higher compared to non-lockdown periods. Smartphone and social media addiction was associated with methodological quality of studies (i.e., the higher the risk of boas, the higher the prevalence rate). Other associated factors of social media addiction were the percentage of female participants, mean age of participants, percentage of individuals using the internet in country, and developing status of country. The percentage of individuals in the population using the internet was associated with all the prevalence of behavioral addiction overall and the prevalence of sex addiction and gambling addiction. Gaming addiction prevalence was associated with data collection method (online vs. other methods) that is gaming addiction prevalence was much lower using online methods to collect the data.
Summary
Behavioral addictions appeared to be potential health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare providers and government authorities should foster some campaigns that assist people in coping with stress during COVID-19 pandemics to prevent them from developing behavioral addictions during COVID-19 and subsequent pandemics.
This Special Issue presents some of the main emerging research on technological topics of health and education approaches to Internet use-related problems, before and during the beginning of ...coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The objective is to provide an overview to facilitate a comprehensive and practical approach to these new trends to promote research, interventions, education, and prevention. It contains 40 papers, four reviews and thirty-five empirical papers and an editorial introducing everything in a rapid review format. Overall, the empirical ones are of a relational type, associating specific behavioral addictive problems with individual factors, and a few with contextual factors, generally in adult populations. Many have adapted scales to measure these problems, and a few cover experiments and mixed methods studies. The reviews tend to be about the concepts and measures of these problems, intervention options, and prevention. In summary, it seems that these are a global culture trend impacting health and educational domains. Internet use-related addiction problems have emerged in almost all societies, and strategies to cope with them are under development to offer solutions to these contemporary challenges, especially during the pandemic situation that has highlighted the global health problems that we have, and how to holistically tackle them.
Definition of Substance and Non-substance Addiction Zou, Zhiling; Wang, Huijun; d’Oleire Uquillas, Federico ...
Advances in experimental medicine and biology,
2017, Volume:
1010
Book Chapter, Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Substance addiction (or drug addiction) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by a recurring desire to continue taking the drug despite harmful consequences. Non-substance addiction (or ...behavioral addiction) covers pathological gambling, food addiction, internet addiction, and mobile phone addiction. Their definition is similar to drug addiction but they differ from each other in specific domains. This review aims to provide a brief overview of past and current definitions of substance and non-substance addiction, and also touches on the topic of diagnosing drug addiction and non-drug addiction, ultimately aiming to further the understanding of the key concepts needed for a foundation to study the biological and psychological underpinnings of addiction disorders.
Cell-Phone Addiction: A Review De-Sola Gutiérrez, José; Rodríguez de Fonseca, Fernando; Rubio, Gabriel
Frontiers in psychiatry,
10/2016, Volume:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present a review of the studies that have been published about addiction to cell phones. We analyze the concept of cell-phone addiction as well as its prevalence, study methodologies, ...psychological features, and associated psychiatric comorbidities. Research in this field has generally evolved from a global view of the cell phone as a device to its analysis
applications and contents. The diversity of criteria and methodological approaches that have been used is notable, as is a certain lack of conceptual delimitation that has resulted in a broad spread of prevalent data. There is a consensus about the existence of cell-phone addiction, but the delimitation and criteria used by various researchers vary. Cell-phone addiction shows a distinct user profile that differentiates it from Internet addiction. Without evidence pointing to the influence of cultural level and socioeconomic status, the pattern of abuse is greatest among young people, primarily females. Intercultural and geographical differences have not been sufficiently studied. The problematic use of cell phones has been associated with personality variables, such as extraversion, neuroticism, self-esteem, impulsivity, self-identity, and self-image. Similarly, sleep disturbance, anxiety, stress, and, to a lesser extent, depression, which are also associated with Internet abuse, have been associated with problematic cell-phone use. In addition, the present review reveals the coexistence relationship between problematic cell-phone use and substance use such as tobacco and alcohol.
The diagnostic construct of "food addiction" is a highly controversial subject. The current systematic review is the first to evaluate empirical studies examining the construct of "food addiction" in ...humans and animals. Studies were included if they were quantitative, peer-reviewed, and in the English language. The 52 identified studies (35 articles) were qualitatively assessed to determine the extent to which their findings indicated the following addiction characteristics in relation to food: brain reward dysfunction, preoccupation, risky use, impaired control, tolerance/withdrawal, social impairment, chronicity, and relapse. Each pre-defined criterion was supported by at least one study. Brain reward dysfunction and impaired control were supported by the largest number of studies (
= 21 and
= 12, respectively); whereas risky use was supported by the fewest (
= 1). Overall, findings support food addiction as a unique construct consistent with criteria for other substance use disorder diagnoses. The evidence further suggests that certain foods, particularly processed foods with added sweeteners and fats, demonstrate the greatest addictive potential. Though both behavioral and substance-related factors are implicated in the addictive process, symptoms appear to better fit criteria for substance use disorder than behavioral addiction. Future research should explore social/role impairment, preoccupation, and risky use associated with food addiction and evaluate potential interventions for prevention and treatment.
Aims
To assess disordered online social networking use via modified diagnostic criteria for substance dependence, and to examine its association with difficulties with emotion regulation and ...substance use.
Design
Cross‐sectional survey study targeting undergraduate students. Associations between disordered online social networking use, internet addiction, deficits in emotion regulation and alcohol use problems were examined using univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance.
Setting
A large University in the Northeastern United States.
Participants
Undergraduate students (n = 253, 62.8% female, 60.9% white, age mean= 19.68, standard deviation = 2.85), largely representative of the target population. The response rate was 100%.
Measurements
Disordered online social networking use, determined via modified measures of alcohol abuse and dependence, including DSM‐IV‐TR diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence, the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale and the Cut‐down, Annoyed, Guilt, Eye‐opener (CAGE) screen, along with the Young Internet Addiction Test, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire‐II, White Bear Suppression Inventory and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale.
Findings
Disordered online social networking use was present in 9.7% n = 23; 95% confidence interval (5.9, 13.4) of the sample surveyed, and significantly and positively associated with scores on the Young Internet Addiction Test (P < 0.001), greater difficulties with emotion regulation (P = 0.003) and problem drinking (P = 0.03).
Conclusions
The use of online social networking sites is potentially addictive. Modified measures of substance abuse and dependence are suitable in assessing disordered online social networking use. Disordered online social networking use seems to arise as part of a cluster of symptoms of poor emotion regulation skills and heightened susceptibility to both substance and non‐substance addiction.
Background and Aims
Moral incongruence involves disapproval of a behavior in which people engage despite their moral beliefs. Although considerable research has been conducted on how moral ...incongruence relates to pornography use, potential roles for moral incongruence in other putative behavioral addictions have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of moral incongruence in self‐perceived addiction to: (i) pornography; (ii) internet addiction; (iii) social networking; and (iv) online gaming.
Design
A cross‐sectional, preregistered, online survey using multivariable regression.
Setting
Online study conducted in Poland.
Participants
1036 Polish adults aged between 18 and 69 years.
Measurements
Measures included self‐perceived behavioral addiction to pornography, internet use, social networking and online gaming and their hypothesized determinants (moral incongruence, frequency of use, time of use, religiosity, age and gender).
Findings
Higher moral incongruence (β = 0.20, P < 0.001) and higher religiosity (β = 0.08, P < 0.05) were independently associated with higher self‐perceived addiction to pornography. Additionally, frequency of pornography use was the strongest of the analyzed predictors (β = 0.43, P < 0.001). A similar, positive relationship between high moral incongruence and self‐perceived addiction was also present for internet (β = 0.16, P < 0.001), social networking (β = 0.18, P < 0.001) and gaming addictions (β = 0.16, P < 0.001). Religiosity was uniquely, although weakly, connected to pornography addiction, but not to other types of addictive behaviors.
Conclusions
Moral incongruence may be positively associated with self‐perception of behavioral addictions including not only pornography viewing, but also internet use, social networking and online gaming.
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