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eHealth Intervention for Problematic Internet Use (PIU)

  • Psychiatry in the Digital Age (JS Luo, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Excessive use of the Internet is considered a problematic behaviour by clinicians and researchers. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been advocated for a long time as a treatment approach and has been extended to include family therapy in the recent years. As eTherapy (eHealth) has become an important component in the treatment of many mental health problems, it is prudent to explore the current status of the eHealth approach as an intervention option for this problem. This systematic review aims to examine the current development of online intervention programmes for this particular condition. The PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analysis were employed to conduct the search for literature following a systematic and structured approach. Of the 182 articles screened, three satisfied the selection criteria. Information was extracted and analysed systematically for each study and tabulated. All these studies were pilot studies with small sample sizes. Two of these articles aimed to explore the therapeutic efficacy of newly developed online intervention programmes for Internet addiction (IA) and online gaming addiction. The third article described the design and development of an App for smartphone addiction. The results obtained from this review have provided insight into the on-going development of eHealth interventions as well as the health informatics approaches in offering a possible and practical solution to tackle this growing problem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Lawrence T. Lam & Mary K. Lam

  2. Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Lawrence T. Lam

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  1. Lawrence T. Lam
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  2. Mary K. Lam
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Correspondence to Lawrence T. Lam.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Psychiatry in the Digital Age

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Lam, L.T., Lam, M.K. eHealth Intervention for Problematic Internet Use (PIU). Curr Psychiatry Rep 18, 107 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0747-5

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