Problematic Use of the Internet in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

May 12, 2025 updated by: Susanne Walitza
Pathological internet use is a blanket term for problematic behavior types (e.g. uncontrolled gaming, cyber pornography, cyber mobbing and excessive use of social media): all perpetrated through the internet. There is little documentation or research on interdependencies/interplay between problematic internet and/or media use and child-adolescent disturbances. Very few clinical examples of syndromes like attention deficiency/hyperactivity (ADHS), anxiety disorder or affective disturbances associated with pathological media/internet use, or gaming, are found in literature.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

300

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Switzerland
    • ZH
      • Zurich, ZH, Switzerland, 8032
        • Recruiting
        • Psychiatric University Clinics, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • male and female patients ages from 8 - 18 years
  • All study participants or their legal representative have given written permission for their experiences to be documented in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to understand explanations and the questionnaire, whether linguistic or cognitative

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Patients
male and female patients, handled on an ambulatory basis in Psychiatric University Clinics, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrythe ages from 8 - 18 years during the study
Diagnostic test: screening questionnaire
Fill in screening questionnaire

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Symptoms severity of problematic internet and media use
Time Frame: 3 months
The clinician screening questionnaire (PUI) contains 9 items designed to assess severity of problematic internet and media use of obsessive and compulsive in children and adolescents.The test uses a 4-point scale to rate severity of problematic internet and media use. Higher score means a worse outcome.
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Susanne Walitza

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Susanne Walitza, Prof. Dr. med. Dipl.-Psych., Sponsor GmbH

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 21, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 21, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

January 25, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 12, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • KJPP 2020-00117

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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