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Curbside Consultation

Digital Dependency: Tips for Diagnosis, Screening, and Management of Gaming Disorders

Edmund Shi, DO

American Family Physician. 2025;112(5):554-557.

Author disclosure: No relevant financial relationships

EDMUND SHI, DO, Cleveland Clinic Mercy Medical Center, Canton, Ohio

Address correspondence to Edmund Shi, DO, at shie2@ccf.org.

Author disclosure: No relevant financial relationships

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  7. 7.Nagata JM, Helmer CK, Al-Shoaibi AA. Beyond screen time—addictive screen use patterns and adolescent mental health [editorial]. JAMA. 2025;334(3):214-216.
  8. 8.Greenfield DN. Clinical considerations in internet and video game addiction treatment. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2022;31(1):99-119.
  9. 9.Gentile DA, Bailey K, Bavelier D, et al. Internet gaming disorder in children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2017;140(suppl 2):S81-S85.
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  11. 11.Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed., text revision. American Psychiatric Association; 2013.
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  13. 13.Chan GCK, Saunders JB, Stjepanović D, et al. The Gaming Disorder Identification Test (GADIT) —a screening tool for gaming disorder based on ICD-11. J Behav Addict. 2024;13(3):729-741.
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  17. 17.Nagata JM, Paul A, Yen F, et al. Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use. Pediatr Res. 2025;97(1):403-410.

Case scenarios are written to express typical situations that family physicians may encounter; authors remain anonymous. Send scenarios to afpjournal@aafp.org. Materials are edited to retain confidentiality.

This series is coordinated by Caroline Wellbery, MD, associate deputy editor.

A collection of Curbside Consultation published in AFP is available at https://www.aafp.org/afp/curbside.

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