Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 16, 2021; 9(14): 3287-3293
Published online May 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i14.3287
Positive psychological intervention for anxiety, depression and coping in subjects addicted to online games
Xiu-Jun Gao, Ji-Jun Sun, Mei Xiang
Xiu-Jun Gao, Ji-Jun Sun, Department of Psychiatry, Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Hangzhou 310013, Zhejiang Province, China
Mei Xiang, Department of Elderly Psychiatry, Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Hangzhou 310013, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Gao XJ conceived and designed the study; Sun JJ wrote the manuscript; Xiang M collected the data and performed the statistical analyses; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The Medical and Health Science and Technology Foundation of Zhejiang, No. 2020363968.
Institutional review board statement: The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital.
Informed consent statement: All patients read and signed the informed consent form.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.
Data sharing statement: Data and materials are available with the authors and will be available upon request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ji-Jun Sun, FACP, PhD, Doctor, Department of Psychiatry, Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, No. 305 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou 310013, Zhejiang Province, China. sjjzcy113@126.com
Received: December 24, 2020
Peer-review started: December 24, 2020
First decision: January 24, 2021
Revised: February 5, 2021
Accepted: March 10, 2021
Article in press: March 10, 2021
Published online: May 16, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Addiction to online games is common. The patients usually refuse to take medications and present with affective symptoms. Psychological intervention is a promising treatment for such patients.

Research motivation

Provide a reference for the clinical prevention and treatment of online games addiction.

Research objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of positive psychological intervention in people addicted to online games.

Research methods

Eighty-nine people addicted to online games who received treatment at Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China in 2019 were enrolled in the study. The Hamilton Anxiety and Hamilton Depression scales and Trait Coping Style Questionnaire were analyzed.

Research results

Hamilton Anxiety and Hamilton Depression scales and the score for positive coping style in Trait Coping Style Questionnaire were significantly improved after 6 wk of psychological intervention, while that of the negative coping style decreased significantly.

Research conclusions

Positive psychological intervention alleviated affective symptoms in subjects addicted to online games. Psychological intervention corrected negative coping style, thereby improving mental health.

Research perspectives

Positive psychology intervention could effectively alleviate the affective symptoms and correct the negative coping style in people addicted to online games. Thus, the positive psychology intervention is worthy of clinical popularization.