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Effects of an Internet Use Disorder and Internet Gaming Disorder Early Intervention Program

NCT03582839 · Status: UNKNOWN · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 54

Last updated 2018-07-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Background. In the last two decades Internet usage has grown vastly. Pathological Internet usage (IUD; Internet Use Disorder) is associated with severe mental health problems affecting social, academic and daily life functioning. Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been already included in the DSM-V. Recently, the WHO declared to include Gaming Disorder (GD) in the upcoming ICD-11. Despite the increasing rates of adolescents with IUD and (I)GD, affected people are treated unsystematically and there is a lack of evidence based treatment programs. PROTECT+ is a low-threshold, cognitive behavioral short-term group intervention.

Methods. 54 patients, aged 9-19 years, received PROTECT+ intervention in Heidelberg, Germany. The PROTECT+ intervention group underwent a cognitive-behavioral 4-session group therapy. Follow-up data were collected at 1, 4, and 12 months after admission. Primary outcome was the change in (I)GD and IUD related symptoms at the 12-months follow-up. Secondary outcomes were changes in comorbid symptoms as well as in problem solving, cognitive restructuring and emotion regulation skills

Discussion. Treatment of IUD and IGD is still in its early stages. Recent reviews report increasing research on treatment but also a lack of well-designed studies and evidence based treatment programs. The PROTECT+ intervention is a theory driven and evidence based therapy program which is based on the PROTECT preventive intervention in school settings. In the intervention group a reduction of (I)GD and IUD symptom severity is expected over 12 months.

Conditions

  • Mental Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

PROTECT+

The early intervention PROTECT+ consists of a cognitive-behavioral 4-session brief-protocol (100 minutes) and targets empirically identified risk factors of (I)GD/IUD, i.e. (1) boredom and motivational problems, (2) procrastination and performance anxiety, (3) social behavior and (4) emotion regulation. It addresses both risk-reduction and strength-promotion by cognitive behavioral (CB) interventions such as (1) psychoeducation, (2) cognitive restructuring (identification and modification of dysfunctional cognition), (3) behavior modification (improving problem solving skills, training of functional behavior and reinforcement) as well as (4) improving emotion regulation (training of sensory, imaginative and mindfulness based techniques).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Heidelberg University

    collaborator OTHER

  • Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Katajun Lindenberg, PhD · Institut für Psychologie der Pädagogischen Hochschule Heidelberg

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
9 Years
Max Age
19 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2016-04-14
Primary Completion
2018-12-23
Completion
2019-04-01

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03582839 on ClinicalTrials.gov