TY - JOUR
T1 - The emerging evidence on the association between symptoms of ADHD and gaming disorder
T2 - A systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Koncz, Patrik
AU - Demetrovics, Zsolt
AU - Takacs, Zsofia K.
AU - Griffiths, Mark D.
AU - Nagy, Tamás
AU - Király, Orsolya
N1 - Funding Information:
ZD's contribution was supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office ( KKP126835 ; K134807 ). OK was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences . The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, writing the manuscript, or about the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Funding Information:
ZD's contribution was supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (KKP126835; K134807). OK was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, writing the manuscript, or about the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.The authors declare that they do not have any financial or other interests that could constitute a real, potential, or apparent conflict of interest with respect to their involvement in the publication. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit charity. ELTE Eötvös Loránd University receives funding from Szerencsejáték Ltd. (the gambling operator of the Hungarian government) to maintain a telephone helpline service for problematic gambling. MDG's university has received research funding from Norsk Tipping (the gambling operator owned by the Norwegian Government). MDG has also received funding for a number of research projects in the area of gambling education for young people, social responsibility in gambling and gambling treatment from Gamble Aware (formerly the Responsible Gambling Trust), a charitable body which funds its research program based on donations from the gambling industry. MDG regularly undertakes consultancy for various gaming companies in the area of social responsibility in gambling. ZD and MDG have been members of a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group on the public health consequences of addictive behaviors. In this capacity, they have been eligible for travel support from WHO or the host center to attend advisory group meetings but have not been remunerated for their work. None of these funding sources are related to this study, and the funding institution had no role in the study design or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - The co-existence of gaming disorder (GD) with other mental health problems has been widely reported. Despite the growing research interest in the comorbidity of GD with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to date, no quantitative synthesis has been performed. The present study comprised a systematic literature search using Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. Three types of studies were included in the analyses: studies reporting (i) correlation coefficients between the symptoms of GD and ADHD, (ii) means, and standard deviations for comparison of GD severity between ADHD/non-ADHD individuals, and (ii) comparison of ADHD severity between GD/non-GD individuals. The results indicated a moderate relationship between GD and ADHD symptom severity when both subdomains of ADHD were combined (r = 0.296), and also when only inattention (r = 0.306) or hyperactivity (r = 0.266) symptoms were analyzed, which was also confirmed in a structural equation model meta-analysis. Studies showed a large average difference comparing the GD symptom severity of ADHD and non-ADHD individuals (g = 0.693), or ADHD symptom severity of GD and non-GD individuals (g = 0.854). In some cases, higher estimates of association were reported among studies that (i) had a higher proportion of males, (ii) assessed problematic internet use among predominantly video game player samples rather than assessing only GD, and (iii) had been more recently published. The present review shows that this is an emerging field demonstrating significant results in cross-sectional correlational studies. However, future research should apply more rigorous methodologies to investigate the relationship further (e.g., longitudinal studies and studies using professional/clinical ratings and diagnosis). These results suggest that screening and treatment for ADHD among individuals with gaming disorder is necessary, and individuals with ADHD should be made aware of their higher susceptibility to gaming disorder.
AB - The co-existence of gaming disorder (GD) with other mental health problems has been widely reported. Despite the growing research interest in the comorbidity of GD with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to date, no quantitative synthesis has been performed. The present study comprised a systematic literature search using Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and PubMed databases. Three types of studies were included in the analyses: studies reporting (i) correlation coefficients between the symptoms of GD and ADHD, (ii) means, and standard deviations for comparison of GD severity between ADHD/non-ADHD individuals, and (ii) comparison of ADHD severity between GD/non-GD individuals. The results indicated a moderate relationship between GD and ADHD symptom severity when both subdomains of ADHD were combined (r = 0.296), and also when only inattention (r = 0.306) or hyperactivity (r = 0.266) symptoms were analyzed, which was also confirmed in a structural equation model meta-analysis. Studies showed a large average difference comparing the GD symptom severity of ADHD and non-ADHD individuals (g = 0.693), or ADHD symptom severity of GD and non-GD individuals (g = 0.854). In some cases, higher estimates of association were reported among studies that (i) had a higher proportion of males, (ii) assessed problematic internet use among predominantly video game player samples rather than assessing only GD, and (iii) had been more recently published. The present review shows that this is an emerging field demonstrating significant results in cross-sectional correlational studies. However, future research should apply more rigorous methodologies to investigate the relationship further (e.g., longitudinal studies and studies using professional/clinical ratings and diagnosis). These results suggest that screening and treatment for ADHD among individuals with gaming disorder is necessary, and individuals with ADHD should be made aware of their higher susceptibility to gaming disorder.
KW - attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
KW - ADHD
KW - gaming disorder
KW - problematic gaming
KW - comorbidity
KW - meta-analysis
U2 - 10.1016/j.cpr.2023.102343
DO - 10.1016/j.cpr.2023.102343
M3 - Article
SN - 0272-7358
VL - 106
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Clinical Psychology Review
JF - Clinical Psychology Review
M1 - 102343
ER -