An-Pyng Sun (Social Work) and Stephanie Diez (PennWest) published “Understanding the Gaming Disorder–Depression Co-Occurrence: A Narrative Literature Review” in the Journal of Affective Disorders Reports. Adolescents, young adults, and their families are increasingly seeking professional help for digital- or video-gaming disorder (GD), which often co-occurs with depression. In order to effectively treat GD–depression comorbidity, it is critical to understand the mechanisms that link the two.
Our review suggests that depression may be the mediator between some risk factors (e.g., psychiatric disorders, childhood trauma, dysfunctional family, bullying victimization) and GD, and that individuals may game to self-medicate their depression. On the other hand, pathological gaming may result in negative psychosocial consequences (e.g., withdrawal/neuroadaptation, social isolation and unhealthy lifestyle [e.g., sleep deprivation, inadequate diet patterns, immobility], compromised aspirations/lower self-esteem) that facilitate depression. The bi-directional relationship between GD and depression should be integrated into clinical assessments and treatments.
