Adolescent Internet Gaming Disorder: A Narrative Review

This narrative review is based on a literature search on PsycINFO and PubMed that involved entering the terms adolescent internet gaming for papers published during the last five years. Following exclusion criteria, 72 papers could be classified as internet gaming or internet gaming disorder/addiction studies including research on the prevalence, effects/comorbidities, risk factors and interventions for those problems. The prevalence of both internet gaming and internet gaming disorder has varied by culture. The effects/comorbidities have included hyperactivity, inattentiveness, cyberbullying, depression, anxiety and substance use. The risk factor studies have focused on impulsivity, sensation-seeking, and aggressivity. Altered autonomic and central nervous system function have also been notable including decreased heart rate variability and fMRI data showing less activation of the prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum and amygdala (areas that are involved in modulating impulsivity, reward-seeking and aggression respectively) as well as reduced gray and white matter. Surprisingly, given the prevalence and severity of internet gaming disorder, very little prevention/intervention research appears in this recent literature. Research is also missing on peer relationships/rejection as potential risk factors. Like other literature on adolescent problems, this research is limited by primarily deriving from self–report and parent report and by the absence of longitudinal data that might inform whether the behavioral and brain data being reported are effects of or risk factors for internet gaming addiction.