Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
"...Group therapy proved helpful in combating the feelings of depression and destabilization..."
From January 2012 to June 2017, clinics in Germany and Austria treated 143 men for internet and computer game addiction. Clinical psychologists treated trial participants with a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program developed by addiction specialists in Mainz, Germany. It included a combination of private and group therapy sessions. Study doctors observed that some of the participants responded negatively towards CBT at first and needed treatment motivation to prevent them from dropping out of the study. According to Wolfling and his associates, this type of withdrawal-like behavior was expected, given IA's addictive nature. Patients reported feelings of destabilization after prolonged abstention from online environments. However, the social aspect of group therapy proved helpful in combating the feelings of depression and destabilization while simultaneously acclimating patients to positive offline social experiences. The drawback of this particular study was that it was limited to only male participants. Wolfing reasoned that the lack of female representation in this study reflects the male preponderance that seeks clinical treatment. In contrast, females who suffer from IA are not as common and less likely to seek professional treatment. However, Wolfing suggests that similar CBT treatments would be just as effective for female participants because "epidemiologic surveys have shown almost no sex difference regarding the prevalence of IA" (Wolfling et al. 1024).