How effective are psychological treatments for internet gaming disorder? An umbrella review

Abstract

Behavioural addictions such as Internet addiction (IA) and, more specifically, Internet gaming disorder (IGD) or video game addiction, have increased their prevalence in recent years in the child and adolescent population. The aim of the present study was to review and synthesise the existing evidence on the effectiveness of psychological treatments for addressing this addiction, as well as to compare them with other types of treatment. To this end, an in-depth search for systematic reviews and meta-analyses was carried out across different databases (WOS, Scopus, PubmMed, Cochrane), inclusion and exclusion criteria were set, and guidelines for the search strategy were defined, as well as the study selection method. A total of 14 reviews and meta-analyses were reviewed. The results showed that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was the most studied psychological treatment, consistently showing effectiveness in reducing the symptoms and severity of IA/IGD. Furthermore, CBT appeared to be more effective when combined with other types of treatment such as pharmacological treatment. It is concluded that there is a need to investigate the effectiveness of psychological treatments for IA/IGD separately in order to provide appropriate interventions to reduce the severity of addiction and improve the quality of life and well-being of children and adolescents.