China has become the first country to classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder as growing numbers of people spend hours of their time in chatrooms, blogging or playing online games every day.
Doctors in Beijing have released a diagnostic definition of the addiction amid increasing concern over psychological problems said to result from overuse of the internet. According to the definition, based on a study of more than 1,300 problematic users, symptoms of the addiction include yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, behavioral problems, irritation and difficulty in concentrating or sleeping. It classifies addicts as those who spend at least six hours online a day and have displayed at least one symptom on the last three months.
China's government has already tried to limit this practice by forcing each user to register their full name and identification number and by building software into the games which kicks players off after five hours. Gao Wenbin, a researcher with the psychology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Chinese youths were finding refuge online from the pressures of being only children. "Most children in China are the only ones in their families. They are told only to study hard, but no one really cares about their needs," he said.
Dr.Tao Ran, who set up China's first internet addiction clinic at the Military General Hospital in Beijing, told China Daily: 'Eighty per cent of addicts can be cured with treatment, which usually lasts about three months.' Dr Tao wants the country to designate hospital psychiatric units specifically to treat such cases. Beijing’s Health Ministry is expected to adopt a new manual on internet addiction next year, which will recognise the condition as similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholism.
According to Chinese estimates, about 10 per cent of young users - or four million people - suffer from addiction and of those about 70 per cent are male. Research by the internet media company InterActiveCorp revealed that 42 per cent of Chinese youngsters polled felt addicted to the internet, compared with just 18 per cent in the US. Polls by the China Network Information Centre showed that nearly half of China’s online population were aged between 18 and 30.
Dr. Tao Ran told The Times: 'The increase now is not as rapid as it was a few years ago. However, this was the first such clinic in China when it opened in 2005. Now there are several hundred across the country.'
Source: Daily Mail Reporter Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team
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