Cue-reactivity to distal cues in individuals at risk for gaming disorder.

BACKGROUND: Gaming disorder (GD) is a disorder due to addictive behaviors (ICD-11). Cue-reactivity and craving are relevant mechanisms in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. When confronted with cues showing in-game content (proximal cues) individuals with higher symptom severity show increased cue-reactivity. Based on conditioning and addiction theories on incentive sensitization, cue-reactivity responses may generalize to more distal cues, e.g. when individuals at risk of developing a GD are confronted with a starting page of an online game. In cue-reactivity paradigms so far, only proximal gaming cues have been used. METHODS: We investigated the effect of distal gaming cues compared to gaming-unrelated control cues on cue-reactivity and craving in 88 individuals with non-problematic use of online games (nPGU) and 69 individuals at risk for GD (rGD). The distal cues showed the use of an electronic device (e.g., desktop PC or smartphone) whose screen showed starting pages of either games (target cues), shopping- or pornography sites (control cues) from a first-person perspective. FINDINGS: We found significantly higher urge and arousal ratings as well as longer viewing times for gaming-related compared to gaming-unrelated control cues in rGD compared to nPGU. Valence ratings did not differ between groups. INTERPRETATION: The results demonstrate that already distal gaming-specific cues lead to cue-reactivity and craving in rGD. This finding indicates that based on conditioning processes, cue-reactivity and craving develop during the course of GD and generalize to cues that are only moderately related to the specific gaming activity.

Viral Infections in Neonates with Suspected Late-Onset Bacterial Sepsis-A Prospective Cohort Study.

Objective The aim of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of viral infections in infants with suspected late-onset bacterial sepsis in a neonatal intensive care unit. Methods In a prospective study, infants with suspected late-onset bacterial sepsis underwent viral testing alongside routine blood culture sampling. Using a multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, nasopharyngeal aspirates were analyzed for adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza virus A and B, H1N1 virus, parainfluenza virus 1 to 4, metapneumovirus, coronavirus, and picornavirus. Stools were examined for adenovirus, rotavirus, norovirus, and enterovirus. Results Between August 2010 and March 2014, data of 88 infants with 137 episodes of suspected late-onset bacterial sepsis were analyzed. Six infants were diagnosed with a respiratory viral infection (2 × RSV, 4 × picornavirus). Blood culture-proven bacterial sepsis was detected in 15 infants. Neither viral-bacterial coinfections nor polymerase chain reaction positive stool samples were found. Conclusion Respiratory viruses can be detected in a considerable number of neonates with suspected late-onset bacterial sepsis. In contrast, gastrointestinal viral or enterovirus infections appear uncommon in such cases.

Insights on associations between the frequency of use of diverse social media products and social networks use disorder tendencies from a German speaking sample.

OBJECTIVE: In the present work we investigate how individual differences in at least occasionally using distinct social media platforms is linked to social networks use disorder (SNUD) tendencies. A final sample of n = 2200 participants filled in the AICA-C-9 measure to get insights into individual differences in overuse of social media and participants also indicated which platforms they used at least once a month. RESULTS: The analysis revealed a robust positive association between number of at least occasionally used social media apps and SNUD tendencies (r = .44, p < .001). Further, platforms differed in terms of their "addictive potential", if one takes associations between frequency of distinct platforms use and SNUD tendencies as a proxy for this (and of course the actual descriptive statistics of the SNUD scale for the (non-)frequent user groups of the different platforms). In this regard, at least occasionally using some platforms (here Tumblr, Twitter and TikTok) was associated with highest SNUD tendencies. Moreover, largest differences in terms of effect sizes between the occasional and non-occasional user groups regarding SNUD scores could be observed for Instagram, WhatsApp, and TikTok. The present work bases on data from a larger project investigating associations between SNUD and tobacco use disorder.