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Editorial on Interconnection between gambling addiction (GD) and Internet gaming addiction (IGD) and comorbid psychopathology. Risk and time sequence of the conditions

Abstract

 I t is well known that people with gambling addiction and with internet gaming disorders both suffer from other mental disorders too. The current work represents and analyzes interconnection, temporal sequence and risk of development of other mental disorders in individuals with GD and IGD. Electronic literary search was conducted using PubMed, PsychINFO, ScienceDirect, Web of Science и Google Scholar. Analysis of existing studies finds a high degree of correlation between IGD and anxiety 92%, with depression 89%, with ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 85%, with social phobia/anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms 75%. In the gambling addiction case, the highest comorbidity was found with psychoactive substance use up to 57.5%; with depression 23% - 40%; with anxiety disorder 37.4-60% of players. Thus, psychoactive substance dependence is 5-6 times higher and the incidence of anxiety and mood disorders is 3 times higher in individuals with GD compared to the General population. It has been shown from these studies that comorbid psychopathology joined in more than half of the cases after a person started playing and was associated with problems that arose as a result of behavioral addiction. At abandonment from a game and restore healthy vital activity severity of symptoms decreased. In other studies, it is difficult to establish a temporal sequence. Gambling addiction can form in individuals without mental disorders, as well as in people with mental disorders at the subclinical or clinical level. But as a result, new mental disorders are added, or existing ones are aggravated. The question is not in any particularly vulnerable group of people, but in the modern products of the gaming industry, which themselves are the main risk factor for GD and IGD development and their accompanying psychopathology. Dependence from the gambling and Internet gaming disorder are behavioral dependencies in the center of which is dependence from a certain type of the gaming behavior over which the control is lost, both in frequency of involvement in the game, as well as in time. A pathological craving for play appears and eventually increases to a compulsive urge, which is constantly embodied almost without a struggle of motives. The dependent person continues to play despite the negative consequences for his mental and physical health, personality, relationships in the family, with friends and in the team, in the professional sphere or in school. The pathological need for the game becomes dominant and replaces all other interests, hobbies, forms of activity, relationships end even the basic needs: food, sleep, intimacy, child care, etc. At the moment, both of these addictions are recognized as mental disorders and are included in the ICD 11 and in the DSM - V classification as addictive behaviour. GD and IGD show very many common intersections in clinical manifestations and neurobiological changes, as well as in negative psychosocial consequences and comorbid psychopathology.

 Tetiana Zinchenko

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