BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Klaus Wölfling (Dipl.-Psych.), born 1971, studied Psychology and Cultural Sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, from 1992 to 1999 and graduated in 2000 with a diploma in Psychology. He started his professional career as research associate at the Institute for Psychology, Humboldt-University Berlin; graduate supervision and teaching. In 2003 he was research associate at the Institute for Medical Psychology, Center for Human- and Health Sciences, Charité, Berlin, and in 2004 worked as clinical psychologist in a General Psychiatric Clinic, Teupitz. From 2005 to 2007 Klaus Wölfling was vice leader of the Interdisciplinary Addiction Research Group Berlin, ISFB, Institute for Medical Psychology, Center for Human- and Health Sciences at the Charité, Berlin. Since 2007 he is research associate for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology at the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz; since 2008 psychological head of the Outpatient Clinic for Gaming Addictions at the Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Mainz.

Klaus Wölfling’s main research interests are:

- Identification of psychophysiological patterns of emotio-cognitive processing in substance-related addictions (cannabis- and alcohol addiction)

- Etiopathological characterization of  non-substance-related addictions: Phenomenological and psychological characterization of abusive computer gaming and internet use

- Identification of neuroscientific correlates of addictive behavior (substance-related, gaming, gambling)

- Psychotherapy effectiveness studies

He is member of several medical and scientific societies, namely:

- The Society for Neuroscience

- Deutsche Psychotherapeuten Vereinigung (German Association of psychotherapists)

- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Suchtforschung und Suchttherapie e.V. (DG-Sucht) (German association for addiction research and addiction therapy)

- Fachverband für Medienabhängigkeit e.V. (Professional association for media addiction; founding member)

ABSTRACT

29 September, Wednesday, 14.30 - 16.30

Parallel session: Online overplay

Presentation title: Internet Addiction

Since the internet has become widely available, an excessive up to an addictive use of computers and the world wide web is beeing currently discussed in society as well as in psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy. In their daily work, clinicians and pediatricians are confronted with patients who chat, gamble, buy, download pornography online or play online computer games compulsively. Those patients report that they suffer from an intrinsic urge to ‘be online’. Due to the excessive use of the internet the preferred online-behavior becomes more salient than any other activity in the person’s life.  During the development and maintanance of an addictive behavior in the sense of a behavioral addiction, patients with internet addiction (IA) show a pattern of symptoms (tolerance, withdrawal, interpersonal conflict, mood modification, and relapse) comparable to substance-related disorders.  The internet activity seems to become the most prominent and effective coping strategy against stressors of all kind. In 2008 the specialized research and intervention outpatient clinic „Ambulanz für Spielsucht“ was founded in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical University Centre Mainz in order to identify, characterize and treat Pathological Gambling (PG), Internet Addiction and Computer Game Addiction (IA/CA). Therefore an innovative and unique behavioral psychotherapy program (individual and group therapy) was developed. Current research of the “Ambulanz für Spielsucht” focuses on the development and evaluation of diagnostic criteria and the clinical description of IA/CA as well as the  psychophysiological and neurobiological investigation of underlying brain processes in internet overuse (neuroimaging studies using EEG). Identified subtypes of patients with IA/CA and their clinical characteristics and first outcomes of behavioral therapy will be presented. The aim of the present lecture is to give an overview of our own as well as international conducted research on internet addiction and to discuss in general whether drug and behavioral addictions have common underlying mechanisms with important therapeutical implications.