Evaluation of Internet Addiction and Digital Game Addiction in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety disorders (AD) are quite common disorders which associated with severe loss of function, causing high economic cost in children (1). AD, which manifest as separation anxiety disorder and specific phobia in childhood, appear as social phobia as the age progresses. The prevalence of AD is reported to be between 15-20% for children and adolescents (2). Today, the Internet is increasingly being used as a means of information sharing, access to information, rapid communication and interaction among all age groups. In our country, Turkey Statistical Institute, according to data from 2016, where nearly eight of ten households have internet access opportunity and the proportion of individuals using the Internet was reported to be 61.2%. In addition to the advantages of increasing internet usage in our country along with the world, the negative effects on the life of some users were pointed out. In DSM-5, " internet gaming disorder ”is located under the title of ‘Conditions for Further Study’(1, 3). In the literature, terms such as online addiction, cyber addiction, pathological internet use, excessive internet use, internet addiction disorder, net addiction, cyber domain addiction, problematic internet use, technological addiction, compulsive internet use, internet behavior addiction are included (4). In a study conducted in seven different provinces in Turkey in 2009 internet addiction rate in the sample aged 14-20 was 10.1% (5). Internet addiction has been shown to have harmful effects on neurobiological, psychological and emotional development of adolescents in general (6). In a systematic review, internet addiction can have serious mental and emotional effects, but may also occur as a result of ongoing mental health problems, and there is a potential correlation between impulsivity, depression, anxiety, psychosis, obsessive compulsive symptoms, and internet addiction (7). ). In the literature, there are studies investigating the relationship between social anxiety disorder and internet use (8). However, it is reported that almost all ADs can be comorbid to internet addiction (9). In this study, it was aimed to share the results of a clinical sample by comparing internet addiction and digital game addiction to adolescents diagnosed with AD with healthy adolescents. According to our knowledge; this is the first study in the literature evaluating internet and digital game addiction in adolescent patients diagnosed with AD after a formal process.