A new study by brain scientists Kylie Falcione and René Weber at UC Santa Barbara’s Media Neuroscience Lab helps answer that question, and their findings may have profound impacts on treatment options for gaming addicts. Their research, "Psychopathology and Gaming Disorder in Adolescents," was recently published in JAMA Network Open, an open-access, peer-reviewed international medical journal of the American Medical Association.

加州大学圣巴巴拉分校媒体神经科学实验室的脑科学家Kylie Falcione和ren<s:1> Weber的一项新研究帮助回答了这个问题，他们的发现可能会对游戏成瘾者的治疗选择产生深远的影响。他们的研究题为“青少年的精神病理学和游戏障碍”，最近发表在《美国医学会网络开放》杂志上，这是一本开放获取、同行评议的美国医学会国际医学杂志。

“We’ve known for some time that gaming disorder exists, but we’ve also known that not every gamer develops the disorder,” Falcione said. “So the question that a lot of researchers have been asking about is what drives people to develop a gaming disorder. Is it the addictive nature of all these rewards and punishments of the video games themselves? Or is it that some people have preexisting conditions or personal core characteristics that are leading them to develop a gaming disorder?” The results of Falcione and Weber’s research points to the latter.

Falcione说：“我们知道游戏障碍的存在已经有一段时间了，但我们也知道并不是每个玩家都会患上这种障碍。”“所以很多研究人员一直在问的问题是，是什么驱使人们患上游戏障碍。是电子游戏本身奖惩的成瘾性吗？还是有些人已经存在疾病或个人核心特征导致他们患上游戏障碍？”法尔西奥内和韦伯的研究结果指向后者。

Their longitudinal analysis, using information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2022, focused on 4,289 adolescents in the U.S. who played video games, collecting data in three age waves: 11–12, 12–13 and 13–14 years. Along the way, they accounted for the kids’ past psychopathology, including depression, anxiety and previous gaming disorders, among a variety of factors. They also controlled for sex, impulsivity, bullying and adverse events, such as a death in the family or other life trauma.

他们利用美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）资助的“青少年大脑认知发展研究”项目中 2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2022 年 12 月 31 日期间的信息，对 4289 名美国青少年进行了纵向分析，这些青少年都玩电子游戏。研究在三个年龄段收集了数据：11 至 12 岁、12 至 13 岁和 13 至 14 岁。在此过程中，他们考虑了孩子们过去的心理疾病，包括抑郁、焦虑和既往的游戏障碍等众多因素。他们还控制了性别、冲动性、欺凌以及诸如家庭成员去世或其他生活创伤等不利事件的影响。

“The results we found were clear and consistent,” said Falcione, a graduate student in the Department of Communication. “The kids who were already having depressive symptoms and social issues were more likely to get stuck in a cycle of problematic gaming.”

“我们发现的结果是清晰而一致的，”通信系的研究生法尔乔内说。“那些已经有抑郁症状和社交问题的孩子更有可能陷入有问题的游戏循环中。”

“What the study showed,” she continued, “was that the underlying issue started beforehand and that the addictive gaming behaviors were, in a way, a symptom or a manifestation of those preexisting psychopathologies. For these kids, gaming had become an unhealthy coping mechanism.”

“这项研究表明，”她继续说道，“潜在的问题是预先开始的，上瘾的游戏行为在某种程度上是那些先前存在的精神病理的症状或表现。对于这些孩子来说，游戏已经成为一种不健康的应对机制。”

Previous research has suggested that psychopathology and gaming disorder can create a “downward spiral” of mutually reinforcing factors over time, added Weber, with a note of caution. “Our study cannot fully rule out such a bidirectional relationship,” in this case meaning that psychopathology could intensify a gaming disorder and, in turn, an intensified gaming disorder could intensify psychopathology.

韦伯警告说，之前的研究表明，随着时间的推移，精神病理学和游戏障碍会造成相互强化因素的“恶性循环”。“我们的研究不能完全排除这种双向关系，”在这种情况下，这意味着精神病理学可能加剧游戏障碍，反过来，加剧的游戏障碍可能加剧精神病理学。

“In this ‘downward spiral’ association, the question of cause and effect can become blurry,” said Weber, director of UCSB’s Brain Imaging Center and a professor of communication and psychological and brain sciences.

“在这种‘恶性循环’的联系中，因果关系的问题可能变得模糊，”韦伯说，他是UCSB脑成像中心主任，也是传播学、心理学和脑科学教授。

Falcione and Weber’s findings could help doctors and mental health professionals develop better treatment options as they drill down on root causes.

Falcione和Weber的发现可以帮助医生和心理健康专家在深入研究根本原因的同时，开发出更好的治疗方案。

“Based on our research, the best step towards treatment would be to start at the psychopathology level — identify the underlying issues,” Falcione said. “That’s a big takeaway.”

Falcione说：“根据我们的研究，最好的治疗方法是从精神病理层面开始——找出潜在的问题。”“这是一个很大的收获。”

“Many parents think that simply taking away video games will solve the problem,” she added. “But without addressing what’s really going on, parents will not only be contending with their child’s withdrawal symptoms, their child may relapse into more addictive gaming behaviors or find another outlet.”

她补充说：“许多家长认为，简单地把电子游戏拿走就能解决问题。”“但如果不解决真正的问题，父母不仅要与孩子的戒断症状作斗争，他们的孩子可能会重新沉迷于更容易上瘾的游戏行为，或者找到另一个出口。”

Worldwide, gaming disorder presents among roughly 3% of all gamers, with prevalence numbers varying depending on disorder definition, game genre, player sample and location.

在全球范围内，约有3%的玩家患有游戏障碍，患病率因障碍定义、游戏类型、玩家样本和地理位置而异。