Psychiatric comorbidity assessed in Korean children and adolescents who screen positive for Internet addiction.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to evaluate clinical comorbidity in children and adolescents with Internet addiction by using structured interview. METHOD The study was performed in 2 stages. We screened for the presence of Internet addiction among 455 children (mean +/- SD age = 11.0 +/- 0.9 years) and 836 adolescents (mean +/- SD age = 15.8 +/- 0.8 years) using Young's Internet Addiction Scale. These subjects also completed a measure of psychopathology for comparison between addicted and nonaddicted subjects. Sixty-three children (13.8%) and 170 adolescents (20.3%) screened positive for Internet addiction. Of these, 12 children (male, N = 9; female, N = 3) and 12 adolescents (male, N = 11; female, N = 1) were randomly selected for evaluation of current psychiatric diagnoses. Structured interviews used were K-SADS-PL-K for children and SCID-IV for adolescents. Data were collected and interviews were conducted from August 2003 through October 2004. RESULTS In the child group, 7 were diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) not otherwise specified including those with subthreshold levels. Mean DuPaul's ADHD Rating Scale scores were more than 20% higher than the mean in Korean children for 6 subjects. In the adolescent group, 3 subjects had major depressive disorder, 1 had schizophrenia, and 1 had obsessive-compulsive disorder. CONCLUSION By structured interview, we found that Internet-addicted subjects had various comorbid psychiatric disorders. The most closely related comorbidities differ with age. Though we can not conclude that Internet addiction is a cause or consequence of these disorders, clinicians must consider the possibility of age-specific comorbid psychiatric disorders in cases of Internet addiction.

[1]  Chin-Chung Tsai,et al.  Internet Addiction of Adolescents in Taiwan: An Interview Study , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[2]  C. Ko,et al.  Proposed Diagnostic Criteria of Internet Addiction for Adolescents , 2005, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[3]  Barbora Simkova,et al.  Internet Addiction Disorder and Chatting in the Czech Republic , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[4]  K. Young,et al.  Psychology of Computer Use: XL. Addictive Use of the Internet: A Case That Breaks the Stereotype , 1996, Psychological reports.

[5]  Garrett Fitzmaurice,et al.  Childhood and adolescent predictors of major depression in the transition to adulthood. , 2003, The American journal of psychiatry.

[6]  Sujin Lee,et al.  Internet Over-Users' Psychological Profiles: A Behavior Sampling Analysis on Internet Addiction , 2003, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[7]  B. J. Casey,et al.  Differential patterns of striatal activation in young children with and without ADHD , 2003, Biological Psychiatry.

[8]  Seung-Chul Hong,et al.  Prevalence of major depressive disorder in the general population of South Korea. , 2006, Journal of psychiatric research.

[9]  D. Ahn,et al.  An Epidemiological Study of Attention-deficits Hyperactivity Disorder and Learning Disabilities in a Rural Area , 1999 .

[10]  C. Holden.  'Behavioral' Addictions: Do They Exist? , 2001, Science.

[11]  A. Johansson,et al.  Problems with Computer Games without Monetary Reward: Similarity to Pathological Gambling , 2004, Psychological reports.

[12]  Y. S. Kim,et al.  The Reliability and Validity of Korean Parent and Teacher ADHD Rating Scale , 2002 .

[13]  H. Reinherz,et al.  Risk factors for depressive symptoms in late adolescence: a longitudinal community study. , 1999, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[14]  Blaine L. Browne,et al.  Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Internet Use and Addiction , 2002, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[15]  Changkook Yang,et al.  SCL-90-R and 16PF Profiles of Senior High School Students with Excessive Internet Use , 2005, Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie.

[16]  J. Jensen.  Caught in the net , 2005 .

[17]  I. Lyoo,et al.  Attention deficit hyperactivity symptoms and Internet addiction , 2004, Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[18]  Kimberly Young,et al.  The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction , 1998, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[19]  P. Keck,et al.  Psychiatric features of individuals with problematic internet use. , 2000, Journal of affective disorders.

[20]  D. Black,et al.  Clinical features, psychiatric comorbidity, and health-related quality of life in persons reporting compulsive computer use behavior. , 1999, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[21]  Young Shin Kim,et al.  The reliability and validity of Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version- Korean version (K-SADS-PL-K). , 2004, Yonsei medical journal.

[22]  Mary McMurran,et al.  The Psychometric Properties of the Internet Addiction Test , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[23]  P. Mitchell.  Internet addiction: genuine diagnosis or not? , 2000, The Lancet.

[24]  K. Durkin,et al.  ADHD Outside the Laboratory: Boys' Executive Function Performance on Tasks in Videogame Play and on a Visit to the Zoo , 2002, Journal of abnormal child psychology.