Preliminarily Proposed Diagnostic Criteria of Pathological Internet Use / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To establish a preliminary diagnostic criteria of pathological internet use for field test in China.Methods:Through searching common "pathological internet use" diagnostic criteria or screen criteria in literature,a diagnostic criteria items pool and a preliminary diagnostic criteria of "pathological internet use" were established .According to the diagnostic criteria,each 2 senior professional psychiatrists in turn interviewed 79 patients and their parents,and then made diagnosis respectively. In addiction,44 high school students were each evaluated by one psychiatrist.The definite diagnosis was made when 2 evaluators make the same diagnosis for one patient.Result:In 123 patients,54 were pathological internet use.For diagnosis,the value of kappa for inter-rater reliability was 0.812( P<0.001).In the 12 criteria items,2 for poor inter-rater reliability and 4 for little contribution to diagnosis were eliminated.In the reserved 6 items,if 4 items(or more)were positive,the diagnostic sensitivity was 78.9% and specificity was 95.3%.Functional impairment criteria were made strictly.In the patients who were made the definite diagnosis,90.7% had duration of illness above 3 months,and 77.7% above 6 months.Conclusion:The preliminary diagnostic criteria of pathological internet use after revised includes 6 symptom criteria,3 functional impairment criteria,duration of illness and exclusive criteria.The criteria proposed is with high consistency on evaluations made by psychiatric raters,and with operational convenience.The criteria,after further revised,may fit the clinical application.