Cognitive-Behavioral Treatments for "Internet Addiction"

Abstract

During the last years, Internet misuse was increasingly described as a possible "Internet addiction". Based on some similarities with well known addictive behaviors, it was hypothesized that several cognitive, behavioral and emotional patterns are involved in the maintenance of problematic Internet use. The present paper summarizes the motivational and cognitive behavioral approaches used during the treatment of "Internet addiction". A limited number of preliminary studies evaluated these treatments and conclude to the usefulness of these approaches. Due to the several limitations of these previous studies, further works including controlled design are highly warranted.