July 2010: Internet addiction

Today we are discussing internet addiction, which has become a growing global phenomenon reported by professional anecdote and by mainstream media. Although internet addiction is not formally recognised by the ICD or DSM as yet, there is much research afoot to attempt to define it, and by so doing, develop specific and evidence-based ways to treat it. We discuss a two-wave prevalence study by Dr Fu et al (2010), looking at how big the problem of internet addiction is, what it is comorbid with, and whether it can be seen to exist on its own as a diagnostic entity.

 download podcast

Presenter: Dr Ovais Badat, London

Interviewee: Dr King-wa Fu, Hong Kong

Audio running time: 19:58

Credits: 0.5

 

Please note this is a telephone interview.

 

Learning outcomes

 

By the end of this podcast, we hope you will:

 

  • understand the background history which led to this study, and be able to describe some of the basic features that are proposed to be descriptive of internet addiction

 

  • describe the methods, advantages and limitations of a prevalence study, and how this study design was applied in this case

 

  • understand the limitations of the study with respect to study design and with respect to the criteria used to diagnose and make distinct a possible new syndrome of internet addiction

 

  • have an understanding of how studies of this type can help shape services and future research.

 

Take the module test and gain CPD certification

 

    

If you like this podcast, you may also be interested in the following:

 

Cross-cultural research by Dr Louise Theodosiou

 

Effective use of the internet in psychiatry (module) by

 

Computer-aided cognitive behaviour therapy (module) by Lina Gega and Prof Isaac Marks

 

Computers, the internet and the World Wide Web: an introduction for the e-therapist (module) by Chris Blackmore and Professor Digby Tantam

 

 

 

Module test | About the interviewee | References | Feedback
© 2010 Royal College of Psychiatrists