Guidelines on the Treatment of Gaming Disorder

Aim: Compared to other specific Internet use disorders, gaming disorder (GD) has the highest occurrence in treatment settings, is the best researched and is the only one recognized as a diagnostic entity within the framework of the ICD-11. Accordingly, initial guidelines can be derived from the current state of research on the treatment of GD. Methods: A systematic search was carried out in the scientific databases MEDLINE, PUBMED and WEB OF SCIENCE for “title” and “abstract”, with a focus on the psychotherapeutic treatment of adults, children and adolescents as well as psycho­pharmacotherapy. Only publications in English or German as well as scientific articles and scientific reviews were included. Results: Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is recommended as the first choice for children, adolescents and adults. The respective comorbidities, especially depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and ADHD, must be taken into account. This also applies to the use of psychotropic drugs. Only bupropion has shown to have addiction-specific effectiveness with regard to GD, however the evidence is weak. There is consensus that rehabilitative measures should be provided in particularly severe and chronic cases. Discussion: The research enables initial therapeutic guidelines based on the current state of research, but these have so far provided little differentiated information for the treatment of computer gaming disorder. Further studies with follow-up are required in order to generate more scope and certainty for more concrete recommendations.