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Post-pandemic video game addiction: Care quadruples in one year at Belveg Hospital | Catalonia


Video game addiction is on the rise. And a lot. In 2022, the Pathological Gambling and Behavioral Addiction Unit at the Belveg Hospital in Barcelona received four times more visits for “excessive use” of video games than in the previous year. Experts believe this growth is due to the impact of confinement among young people during the pandemic. “They didn’t go to class, they were with their families permanently and video games were their space. It was a very complicated situation,” says Susana Jimenez, head of this unit. The Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital in Barcelona also confirms the upward trend, although there is no statistic yet.

Of the 350 patients who come to Bellvitegee annually, about 12 were due to video game addiction in 2021, according to the center’s figures, while in 2022 the attention ratio rose to 50. 81% of patients are between the ages of 14 and 30, and one in every Five minor cases, as EL PAÍS learned. Of the total, 10 percent are women. “The prevalence of video game addiction is much higher among boys than among girls,” says Jimenez.

The expert believes that men show “extreme impulsiveness” and difficulty in personal relationships. In addition, he adds, they tend to have problems resolving conflicts and are prone to stress. In women, on the other hand, Jiménez detects a slightly different profile. They are a little older, with low self-esteem and personal dissatisfaction. They have other motives to play and identify especially with their avatar. [el personaje que usan en los videojuegos]”.

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Several users take part in cable competitions at an event in Hannover in December 2022.
Several users take part in cable competitions at an event in Hannover in December 2022. Picture alliance (dpa/picture alliance via Getty I)

The increase in video game addiction has been steady since 2005, when data was available at Belvet Hospital. In the first five years of enrollment, between 1% and 2% of the attention unit of pathological gambling and behavioral addictions was linked to excessive video game use. The figure rose to a maximum of 5.7% in subsequent years, but it picked up in 2022. Why did the lockdowns arrive in 2022 and not 2021, a year after the pandemic began? “So that patients and their families do not realize that the passion for video games is actually an addiction, they do not go to counseling, and it is common for a few years to pass between the occurrence of pathology and the request for help,” Jimenez answers.

Most studies indicate that massive, online, role-playing, and multiplayer video games are the ones that generate the most overuse problems. “People like Fortnite or those who allow users to play with more people are most at risk,” explains the person in charge. The need to level up in a game or build an avatar, he understands, affects satisfactory use.

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As with many addictions, video games can provide emotional regulation. “They can be used as a way to escape frustration, sadness, or dissatisfaction,” Jimenez explains. Belvig estimates that 3% of the population is “at risk of suffering from this type of behavioral addiction, with severe consequences in the personal, family, social, work, and/or academic spheres.”

The importance of video games in a person’s life, devoting excessive time daily to activity, and increased irritability, anxiety, and sadness when you stop playing or give up other social activities are some of the warning signs that, according to the hospital team, can help early. detection of this type of addiction.

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