[Internet dependency as a symptom of depressive mood disorders]

In psychiatric contexts, the quick distribution of virtual techniques in private and professional everyday life gives rise to the question, if these can evoke a psychological addiction. Yet, the diagnostic assessment of internet or computer game dependency remains problematic.

Within a study with 23 internet-dependent patients with significant psychological strain, 18 (77.8%) were diagnosed with a depressive mood disorder by thorough clinical examination and structured interviews. The presented work compares psychometric test results of the depressed subpopulation with healthy controls matched for age, sex and school education.

In the Barrat Impulsiveness Scale patients with internet dependency scored significantly higher than the control group (p < or = 0.05), while there was no significant correlation to the Internet Addiction Scale. Becks Depression Inventory and the Symptom-Checklist subscale for depression revealed significantly higher scores within the patient group as compared to controls (p < or = 0.001). And in the Dissociative Experience Scale, the Sense of Coherence Scale and the Inventory for Interpersonal Problems the internet dependent subjects showed significantly more pathological scores than the healthy subjects (p < or = 0.05).

Since internet dependency can be understood as a novel psychopathology of well known psychiatric conditions, every psychiatrist should be able to detect and treat it adequately, as long as there is a willingness to deal with the contents and impacts of cyberspace. Especially with depressed patients, it seems to be crucial to include questions about media usage in psychiatric examination taking.