Estimated Prevalence of Unreported IGD Cases in Routine Outpatient Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy

• Main Authors: Sonja Kewitz, Eva Vonderlin, Lutz Wartberg, Katajun Lindenberg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: Internet Gaming Disorder; prevalence; children; adolescents; clinical diagnoses; clinical sample
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6787
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been included in the DSM-5 as a diagnosis for further study, and Gaming Disorder as a new diagnosis in the ICD-11. Nonetheless, little is known about the clinical prevalence of IGD in children and adolescents. Additionally, it is unclear if patients with IGD are already identified in routine psychotherapy, using the ICD-10 diagnosis F 63.8 (recommended classification of IGD in ICD-10). This study investigated N = 358 children and adolescents (self and parental rating) of an outpatient psychotherapy centre in Germany using the Video Game Dependency Scale. According to self-report 4.0% of the 11- to 17-year-old patients met criteria for a tentative IGD diagnosis and 14.0% according to the parental report. Of the 5- to 10-year-old patients, 4.1% were diagnosed with tentative IGD according to parental report. Patients meeting IGD criteria were most frequently diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorders, followed by anxiety disorders, F 63.8, conduct disorders, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders (descending order) as primary clinical diagnoses. Consequently, this study indicates that a significant amount of the clinical population presents IGD. Meaning, appropriate diagnostics should be included in routine psychological diagnostics in order to avoid “hidden” cases of IGD in the future.