CBT Treatment for Internet Gaming Disorder

NCT ID: NCT05328596

Last Updated: 2025-05-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 160 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-08-31
• Study Completion Date: 2027-12-31

Brief Summary

For most people, gaming is perceived as a positive activity. In some cases, however, gaming may turn into an addiction with consequences for the individual health, quality of life and everyday life. Today, there is a lack of evidence-based interventions to treat this condition, called Gaming Disorder (GD). This study will evaluate a new manual for treatment of GD, divided into a number of modules and based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The study is designed as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and will be conducted at a clinic specialized in the treatment of gambling and gaming addiction.

Participants included in the study will be randomized to one of to groups. The intervention group will receive twelve weeks of individual CBT-treatment while participants allocated to the control group will be put on a twelve-week wait-list.

The hypothesis is that the manual based CBT treatment will result in a greater reduction in symptoms of criteria for GD.

Detailed Description

The study is designed as a two-armed randomized controlled trial. After inclusion, every participant will be offered an overview of the participant´s psychosocial circumstances. Thereafter, the participants will be randomized to one of the two arms.

The main arm includes individual CBT treatment following a module-based manual. The manual includes nine main modules and three optional modules addressing different dimensions of gaming disorder, for example thoughts, emotions, and procrastination. Between every session the participants are working with home assignments, in order to strengthen helpful behaviours. The participants also report amount of time spent on gaming and other activities every week.

Participants randomized to the control arm also report their time spent on gaming and other activities every week.The wait-list control has the same duration as the CBT-arm. After the control-period, participants in the control arm will be offered the same treatment as participants in the intervention arm.

Conditions

Internet Gaming Disorder; Gaming Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

CBT treatment

The CBT-arm includes treatment according to a manual developed to treat GD. The manual is based on nine main and three optional modules. Each module covers different topics identified as problematic for individuals with GD, for example "thoughts" and "feelings". It is possible to adjust the number of modules, in line with the individual plan for every participant.

During the treatment period, the participants report their weekly time spent on gaming, non-gaming screen-time and on other activities.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

CBT-treatment

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Gaming Disorder.

Wait list control

Participants randomised to the control-arm is put on a twelve-week wait-list. During this time, the participants will report their weekly time spent on gaming, non-gaming screen-time and on other activities.

Group Type: OTHER

Wait list control

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

No intervention

Interventions

CBT-treatment

Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Gaming Disorder.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Wait list control

No intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Fulfilling 5 out of 9 criteria for IGD according to DSM V
• ≥ 16 years of age
• Can read and speak Swedish fluidly.

Exclusion Criteria

• Somatic or psychiatric disease that is contraindicating or severely complicates the implementation of the intervention (e.g., ongoing psychotic, manic or hypomanic episode or neuropsychiatric condition with severe disability)
• Ongoing increased suicide risk that is considered to make it inappropriate for the patient to participate in the study (based on evaluation at the structured clinical interview)
• have another ongoing psychological treatment with a content similar to that in the current study
• plan to start such treatment during the XX weeks that the study is ongoing or has during the last three weeks started or changed medication for any psychiatric problem.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 16 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Sahlgrenska University Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Anna Gordh

Associated Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Anna Gordh, Ass. Prof

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Mottagning för spelberoende och skärmhälsa

Locations

Clinic for gambling addiction and screen health

Gothenburg, , Sweden

Countries

Sweden

Central Contacts

Anna Gordh, Ass. Prof

Role: CONTACT

anna.gordh@vgregion.se

+46 73 402 02 37

Elin Arvidson, PhD

Role: CONTACT

elin.arvidson@vgregion.se

+46730965709

Facility Contacts

Elin Arvidson, PhD

Role: primary

elin.arvidson@vgregion.se

+46 730 96 57 09

References

Arvidson E, Hofstedt A, Soderpalm Gordh A. A flexible module-based cognitive behavioral therapy for gaming disorder: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2025 Oct 2;26(1):386. doi: 10.1186/s13063-025-09147-4.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 41039577 (View on PubMed)

Hofstedt A, Mide M, Arvidson E, Ljung S, Mattiasson J, Lindskog A, Soderpalm-Gordh A. Pilot data findings from the Gothenburg treatment for gaming disorder: a cognitive behavioral treatment manual. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 6;14:1162492. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1162492. eCollection 2023.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37346899 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

MSS 2022-IGD RCT

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id