User-avatar bond as diagnostic indicator for gaming disorder: A word on the side of caution.

In their study, Stavropoulos et al. (2023) capitalized on supervised machine learning and a longitudinal design and reported that the User-Avatar Bond could be accurately employed to detect Gaming Disorder (GD) risk in a community sample of gamers. The authors suggested that the User-Avatar Bond is a "digital phenotype" that could be used as a diagnostic indicator for GD risk.

Alcohol abstinence and mortality in a general population sample of adults in Germany: A cohort study.

Background: Evidence suggests that people who abstain from alcohol have a higher mortality rate than those who drink low to moderate amounts. However, little is known about factors that might be causal for this finding. The objective was to analyze former alcohol or drug use disorders, risky drinking, tobacco smoking, and fair to poor health among persons who reported abstinence from alcohol drinking in the last 12 months before baseline in relation to total, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality 20 years later.

Longitudinal measurement invariance of the patient health questionnaire in a German sample.

Background: The Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) is a screening questionnaire of depressive symptoms. However, it is unknown whether it is equivalent across time and between groups of individuals. The aim of our paper was to test whether the PHQ-8 has the same meaning in two groups of individuals over time.

Use of machine learning to classify adult ADHD and other conditions based on the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scales.

A reliable diagnosis of adult Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is challenging as many of the symptoms of ADHD resemble symptoms of other disorders. ADHD is associated with gambling disorder and obesity, showing overlaps of about 20% with each diagnosis. It is important for clinical practice to differentiate between conditions displaying similar symptoms via established diagnostic instruments.

Latent alcohol use patterns and their link to depressive symptomatology in medical care patients.

Aims: To investigate latent patterns of alcohol use and bingeing by gender and their association with depressive symptom severity and individual depressive symptoms.

Design: Cross-sectional data were collected from January 2017 to March 2018 as part of a joint screening recruiting for different intervention studies.

Setting: Ambulatory practices and general hospitals from three sites in Germany.

Screening and assessment tools for gaming disorder: A comprehensive systematic review.

The inclusion of gaming disorder (GD) as an official diagnosis in the ICD-11 was a significant milestone for the field. However, the optimal measurement approaches for GD are currently unclear. This comprehensive systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate all available English-language GD tools and their corresponding evidence.

DSM-5 Internet gaming disorder among a sample of Mexican first-year college students.

Background And Aims: DSM-5 includes Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a condition for further study. While online and offline gaming may produce undesired negative effects on players, we know little about the nosology of IGD and its prevalence, especially in countries with emerging economies.

Methods: A self-administered survey has been employed to estimate prevalence of DSM-5 IGD and study the structure and performance of an instrument in Spanish to measure DSM-5 IGD among 7,022 first-year students in 5 Mexican universities that participated in the University Project for Healthy Students (PUERTAS), part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health International College Student Initiative.

Diagnostic performance of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in detecting DSM-5 alcohol use disorders in the General population.

Objective: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is an established screening questionnaire for the detection of at-risk drinking and possible alcohol use disorders (AUD) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - fourth edition (DSM-IV). But there are still no comparable results on the diagnostic performance regarding the new criteria for AUD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - fifth edition (DSM-5), especially taking account of possible gender differences. We evaluated the performance of the full AUDIT and the consumption questions (AUDIT-C) in screening for DSM-5 AUD and at-risk drinking.

Measurement invariance of the alcohol use disorders identification test: Establishing its factor structure in different settings and across gender.

Introduction: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is an internationally well-established screening tool for the assessment of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption. To be valid for group comparisons, the AUDIT should measure the same latent construct with the same structure across groups. This is determined by measurement invariance.

Association of sociodemographic, psychopathological and gambling-related factors with treatment utilization for pathological gambling.

Background/aims: Only a small percentage of pathological gamblers utilizes professional treatment for gambling problems. Little is known about which social and gambling-related factors are associated with treatment utilization. The aim of this study was to look for factors associated with treatment utilization for pathological gambling.

Assessment of problematic internet use by the Compulsive Internet Use Scale and the Internet Addiction Test: a sample of problematic and pathological gamblers.

This study aims to analyze psychometric properties and validity of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and, second, to determine a threshold for the CIUS which matches the IAT cut-off for detecting problematic Internet use. A total of 292 subjects with problematic or pathological gambling (237 men, 55 women) aged 14-63 years and with private Internet use for at least 1 h per working or weekend day were recruited via different recruitment channels. Results include that both scales were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.

Comorbid Axis I-disorders among subjects with pathological, problem, or at-risk gambling recruited from the general population in Germany: results of the PAGE study.

The aim of the present study was to analyze comorbid Axis I-disorders in a sample of individuals with at-risk, problem, and pathological gambling. A number of 164 adult gamblers derived from a random sample of 15,023 individuals were compared with a general population sample. The lifetime prevalence of any psychiatric disorder was 93.

Factor structure of the compulsive internet use scale.

An important step in Internet addiction research is to develop standardized instruments for assessing Internet addiction-related symptoms. The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) is a promising brief questionnaire. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure of a German version of the CIUS with confirmatory factor analysis in a general population sample.

Prevalence of dependence on prescription drugs and associated mental disorders in a representative sample of general hospital patients.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of dependence on prescription drugs (DPD) and associated comorbid disorders in consecutive general hospital inpatients.

Methods: The sample consisted of 952 volunteer patients (age range, 18 to 64 years) in a German general hospital. The screening instrument was a self-administered questionnaire.

Association of smoking and nicotine dependence with trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in a general population sample.

This study is aimed at investigating the association between trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), smoking, and nicotine dependence. Data were collected in a representative population sample of 4075 adults aged 18 to 64 with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Findings show increased odds ratios (ORs) for smoking (OR: 1.

Relation among stage of change, demographic characteristics, smoking history, and nicotine dependence in an adult German population.

Background: The aim of this study was to provide evidence about the individual intention to quit smoking and accompanying characteristics in a country with a low amount of tobacco control (TC) provisions.

Methods: This study used a random sample of the population aged 18-64 in a German area to make a quantitative estimation of the stages of change to quit smoking among current smokers who had at least one quit attempt (n = 1075).

Results: The rate of those who did not intend to stop smoking (precontemplators) was 76.

Specific somatoform disorder in the general population.

The authors assessed the validity of the recently proposed diagnosis for specific somatoform disorder in the general population. German versions of the DSM-IV adapted Composite International Diagnostic Interview were administered to a representative sample of 4075 individuals. Multivariate analyses were used to compare impairment, life satisfaction, and use of health care.

Somatoform pain disorder in the general population.

Background: Chronic pain disorder is assumed to represent a frequent and disabling condition. However, data on the prevalence of somatoform pain symptoms and somatoform pain disorder in the community are limited to date.

Methods: German versions of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview were administered to a representative national sample of 4,075 people.