Internet Gaming Disorder and Homoeopathic Medicine

Abstract:

Nowadays the use of the internet has become essential even for children, it leads to a lot of problems. One of the crises is Internet gaming disorder. It is an addictive behaviour which involves them in video games repeatedly so finally they cannot control it and affect their daily life activity. It is more common among young people and men. It is also associated with depression, anxiety and muscle tension. Homoeopathy is a holistic method which treats patients individually by considering both mental and physical conditions. Homoeopathic medicine along with psychotherapy helps the person to break from gaming addiction and helps to lead quality life.

Keyword: Internet gaming disorder, addiction behaviour, Nucleus Accumbens, psychotherapy, Homoeopathy

Introduction:

Due to widespread internet usage the disadvantages started to occur. One of the detrimental impacts of the internet is Internet Gaming disorder (IGD) which comes under the classification of DSM 5⁽¹⁾. Internet gaming disorder (IGD) means repetitive involvement of video games which affect daily life, mental health and lead to many physical conditions. It is also placed under behavioural addiction. It is more common in both genders but more in younger people and Men^(2,3). IGD drastically increased during and after COVID period because initially many of them use the games for entertainment, to connect with people, to escape from loneliness and depression but later it becomes addictive behaviour. It is often associated with muscle tension, irritability, difficulty in sleeping, anxiety, poor concentration and depression. The Homoeopathic system treats the person as whole by considering both mental and physical condition. Homoeopathic medicine along with psychotherapy helps the person to attain their goal and lead a quality life.

Criteria for IGD ⁽²⁾:

According to the American psychological association, among nine symptoms the least five symptoms should be experienced over 12 months’ period

1. Gaming preoccupation
2. Withdrawal symptoms when gaming is taken away
3. Tolerance, leads to spending more time on gaming
4. Unsuccessful attempts to control participation in games
5. Loss of interest in previous hobbies and entertainment except games
6. Deceiving others about amount of gaming
7. Use internet games in spite knowing about the psychosocial problems 
8. Use games to escape from negative moods
9. Endangering or losing the relationship, job, career, education and other opportunities. 

Pathophysiology

 Studies suggested that nucleus accumbens (NAc) which is responsible for regulation of emotional and reward related (motivational) stimuli by receiving signals from the limbic system. NAc consists of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) and tonically active neurons (TAN). MSNs is divided into two types of dopamine (DA) receptor expression, gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic projection neurons. DA receptor D1 stimulates reward related behaviour and DA receptor D2 stimulates aversive behaviour. Tonically active neurons regulate the activity of Medium spiny neurons. From Neurotoxicology stand point addiction can be due to impairments in emotion and reward related (motivational) stimuli in NAc ^(4,5).

Symptoms ⁽⁶⁾:

Mental symptoms:

• Poor concentration
• Irritable
• Aggressive attitude
• Anxiety, nervous
• Feeling guilty
• Avoid doing work, don’t keep schedules
• Avoid people and likes to spend alone
• Try to escape from situation, avoid responsibility
• Impulsive, gloomy

Physical symptoms

• Headache
• Insomnia
• Joint pain, backache, neck stiffness
• Dryness of eyes, strain on eyes
• Increase or decrease appetite

Somatic condition caused by IGD ⁽⁷⁾:

• Visual impairments or visual strain 
• Text neck syndrome
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Gamer’s thumb
• Stenosing tenosynovitis
• Tennis elbow
• Obesity

General management ^(7,8)

• Advice to do Physical exercise
• Advice to take healthy diet 
• Avoid unnecessary snacks and junk food
• Advice to participate in healthy activity like socialising with people
• For reduce eye strain advice 20- 20-20 rule (every 20 min look something which is 20 feet away for 20 sec) 
• Advice to sleep for 8 hours per day.
• Advice to take breaks for rest.

Psychotherapy ⁽⁹⁾:

• Cognitive behaviour therapy
• Group therapy
• Family (or) marriage counselling

Homoeopathic management:

1. Belladona- desire to play war games, fondness for the games of chances ⁽¹⁰⁾, very restless, wildly delirious, biting, violent mania. quarrelsome, patient lives in her own world, excitable, tendency to dance, sing, laugh and whistle. Fear of imaginary things and desire to escape or hide. Talk very fast ⁽¹¹⁾.
2. Tuberculinum- desire to play war games and other video games ⁽¹⁰⁾, cannot stay in single place always wants to change place, to travel and to do something different, desire to curse and swear, sensitive to music, small things make her angry, hopeless, anxious, mania, melancholic, stupor and sleeplessness. Changing mood. Tubercular taint.
3. Tarentula hispanica – desire to play video games, dreams of games and amusement, followed by gloomy one, erratic, impulsive, destructive, lack of morality, likes to dance, mock, cunning, crafty, insensible but observe others how they are reacting to it. desire to strike others or himself, ungrateful. Mental symptoms get better after eating.  
4. Calcarea carbonicum- desire to play video games, likes to watch the games rather than playing, obstinate, wilful, cries about trifles.
5. Silicea – likes to play video games, mental acuteness with physical weakness, obstinate, sullen, lack of confidence, wishes to drown himself, complaints from anticipation.
6. Calcarea iodata- desire to play electronic games, suitable for scrofulous condition, flabby children who readily catch cold, indurated glands. 
7. Taxus baccata- nervous, restless while playing computer games.
8. Stramonium- desire to play war games, live in their own world, do all sorts of crazy things, raving mania, violent speech, want to kill people or himself, self-accusing, sit silently, eyes on ground and picking on clothes. 
9. Coffea cruda-  it gives for ill effects of fear, fright, disappointed love, excessive excitability. Oversensitive. One moment is very happy, the next moment very gloomy. Ecstasy full of thoughts, fright from surprises, irritable throw things, lamenting. It is suitable for choleric temperament. Nervous sleeplessness and insomnia after excitement. Trembling of hand, cannot even hold the pen.
10. Ignatia Amara- highly emotional person, sensitive to emotions, brooding, disappointed love, grief, fright, shock. Symptoms change rapidly, affecting both mind and physical, suitable for the person who starves for a cause or want, nervous temperament. Contradiction intolerance, sighing, sobbing, not communicative. Act on nervous affection like twitching and tremors.
11. Dactylorhiza praetermissa(orchid)- desire to party, games, fun, money, glamour. Joy in the midst of destruction and death, healing wounds of others, war; likes to play sexual games ⁽¹²⁾. 

Conclusion:

Use of Internet connection has increased and it has become part of our day to day life. so we should know how to control its excess use. Likewise, games also help to relieve stress and promote mental health but it should be used in a proper way. Internet gaming disorder is drastically increasing and a clear explanation for it cannot be reached; There are a lot of rooms for further research in the particular topic. The Homoeopathic system has a lot of medicines which help to treat both mental and physical conditions. Homoeopathy along with psychotherapy can help a person lead a quality life and help in providing a break from their gaming addiction. 

Reference:

1. Nasution FA, Effendy E, Amin MM. Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD): A Case Report of Social Anxiety. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2019 Aug 27;7(16):2664-2666. doi: 10.3889/oamjms.2019.398. PMID: 31777629; PMCID: PMC6876823.
2. Pontes HM, Király O, Demetrovics Z, Griffiths MD. The conceptualisation and measurement of DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder: the development of the IGD-20 Test. PLoS One. 2014 Oct 14;9(10):e110137. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110137. PMID: 25313515; PMCID: PMC4196957.
3. Sherer J. Internet Gaming. American psychiatric association. 2023 January. Available from: https://www.psychiatry.org/
4. Xu L, Nan J, Lan Y. The Nucleus Accumbens: A Common Target in the Comorbidity of Depression and Addiction. Front Neural Circuits. 2020 June 30;14:37. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2020.00037. PMID: 32694984; PMCID: PMC7338554.
5. NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ADDICTION: The Role of Reward-Related Learning and Memory Steven E. Hyman, Robert C. Malenka, Eric J. Nestler Annual Review of Neuroscience 2006 29:1, 565-598
6. Computer/Internet Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects – [Internet]. PsychGuides.com [cited 2022 Sep 23];Available from: https://www.psychguides.com/behavioraldisorders/computer-internet-addiction/
7. Grinspoon P. The health effects of too much gaming. Harvard Medical School. 2020 December 22. Available from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming 2020122221645#:~:text=It%20is%20still%20an%20open,withdrawal 
8. Watkins M. Video Game Addiction Symptoms and Treatment. American Addiction Centers. 2022/5/31. Available from: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/video-gaming-addiction.
9.  Cleveland Clinic medical professional.  Video game addiction. 2022/5/27. Available from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23124-video-game-addiction#:~:text=The%20main%20treatment%20option%20for,troubling%20emotions%2C%20thoughts%20and%20behaviors.
10. Zandervoort VR. Complete dynamics. 
11. Phatak SR. Materia medica of homoeopathic medicines. Revised edition 2. B.Jain ; 2007.
12. Allen TF. Encycolpaedia of pure materia medica. B.Jain; 2021.