COVID virus kills pain, possibly explaining why many unaware they are sick

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can relieve pain, according to a new study by University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers.

The finding may explain why nearly half of all people who get COVID-19 experience few or no symptoms, even though they are able to spread the disease, according to the study’s corresponding author Rajesh Khanna, PhD, a professor in the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Pharmacology.

Rajesh Khanna, PhD. (Photo: Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences)“It made a lot of sense to me that perhaps the reason for the unrelenting spread of COVID-19 is that in the early stages, you’re walking around all fine as if nothing is wrong because your pain has been suppressed,” said Dr. Khanna. “You have the virus, but you don’t feel bad because your pain is gone. If we can prove that this pain relief is what is causing COVID-19 to spread further, that’s of enormous value.”

The paper, “SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein co-opts VEGF-A/Neuropilin-1 receptor signaling to induce analgesia,” was published today in PAIN, the journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

View an animated video of how SARS-CoV-2 reduces pain, and a video of Dr. Rajesh Khanna explaining how his team identified the phenomenon.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated data Sept. 10 estimating that 50% of COVID-19 transmission occurs prior to the onset of symptoms and 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic.

“This research raises the possibility that pain, as an early symptom of COVID-19, may be reduced by the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as it silences the body’s pain signaling pathways,” said UArizona Health Sciences Senior Vice President Michael D. Dake, MD. “University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers at the Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center are leveraging this unique finding to explore a novel class of therapeutics for pain as we continue to seek new ways to address the opioid epidemic.”

Doctoral student Lisa Boinon prepares buffers under the watchful eye of Dr. Khanna, her faculty mentor. (Photo: Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences)Viruses infect host cells through protein receptors on cell membranes. Early in the pandemic, scientists established that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein uses the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter the body. But in June, two papers posted on the preprint server bioRxiv pointed to neuropilin-1 as a second receptor for SARS-CoV-2.

“That caught our eye because for the last 15 years my lab has been studying a complex of proteins and pathways that relate to pain processing that are downstream of neuropilin,” said Dr. Khanna, who is affiliated with the UArizona Health Sciences Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center and a member of the UArizona BIO5 Institute. “So we stepped back and realized this could mean that maybe the spike protein is involved in some sort of pain processing.”

Many biological pathways signal the body to feel pain. One is through a protein named vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), which plays an essential role in blood vessel growth but also has been linked to diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and, most recently, COVID-19.

Like a key in a lock, when VEGF-A binds to the receptor neuropilin, it initiates a cascade of events resulting in the hyperexcitability of neurons, which leads to pain. Dr. Khanna and his research team found that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to neuropilin in exactly the same location as VEGF-A.

See a 3D rendering of neuropilin with VEGF-A (left), spike protein (middle) and small molecule inhibitor (right) in the binding pocket here.

Kimberley Gomez, PhD, locates cells to record. (Photo: Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences)

With that knowledge, they performed a series of experiments in the laboratory and in rodent models to test their hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein acts on the VEGF-A/neuropilin pain pathway. They used VEGF-A as a trigger to induce neuron excitability, which creates pain, then added the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

“The spike protein completely reversed the VEGF-induced pain signaling,” Dr. Khanna said. “It didn’t matter if we used very high doses of spike or extremely low doses – it reversed the pain completely.”

Dr. Khanna is teaming up with UArizona Health Sciences immunologists and virologists to continue research into the role of neuropilin in the spread of COVID-19.

In his lab, he will be examining neuropilin as a new target for non-opioid pain relief. During the study, Dr. Khanna tested existing small molecule neuropilin inhibitors developed to suppress tumor growth in certain cancers and found they provided the same pain relief as the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein when binding to neuropilin.

“We are moving forward with designing small molecules against neuropilin, particularly natural compounds, that could be important for pain relief,” Dr. Khanna said. “We have a pandemic, and we have an opioid epidemic. They’re colliding. Our findings have massive implications for both. SARS-CoV-2 is teaching us about viral spread, but COVID-19 has us also looking at neuropilin as a new non-opioid method to fight the opioid epidemic.”

Co-authors on the paper from the Department of Pharmacology are: Aubin Moutal, PhD; Lisa Boinon; Kimberly Gomez, PhD; Dongzhi Ran, PhD; Yuan Zhou; Harrison Stratton, PhD; Song Cai, PhD; Shizhen Luo; Kerry Beth Gonzalez; and Samantha Perez-Miller, PhD. Co-authors from the Department of Anesthesiology, with additional affiliations with the Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center, are Amol Patwardhan, MD, PhD, and Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD.

This research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under Award No. NS098772; and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, also an NIH unit, under Award No. DA042852.

 

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Expert opinion: COVID-19 vaccine rollout unlikely before fall 2021

Experts working in the field of vaccine development tend to believe that an effective vaccine is not likely to be available for the general public before the fall of 2021. In a paper published recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, a McGill-led team published the results of a recent survey of 28 experts working in vaccinology.

The survey was carried out in late June 2020. The majority of those surveyed were mostly Canadian or American academics with an average of 25 years of experience working in the field.

“Experts in our survey offered forecasts on vaccine development that were generally less optimistic than the timeline of early 2021 offered by US public officials. In general they seem to believe that a publicly available vaccine next summer is the best-case scenario with the possibility that it may take until 2022,” said Jonathan Kimmelman, a James McGill professor and the director of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University and the senior author on the paper.

Many experts also believe that there may be some false starts before an effective vaccine is available. “The experts we surveyed believe that there is a 1 in 3 chance that the vaccine will receive a safety warning label after approval, and a 4 in 10 chance that the first large field study will not report efficacy,” added Patrick Kane, the lead author, who is a decision scientist and postdoctoral fellow at McGill.

Predicting timelines for vaccine development

Experts were asked to make timeline forecasts for three milestones in vaccine development. More specifically, experts were asked for their best, soonest, and latest estimates for when each of the following milestone would occur:

1. Question– When will a vaccine be available to the general public in the USA and/or Canada?
   Answers
   best guess = September/October 2021 (average)
   soonest = June 2021 (average)
   latest = July 2022 (average)
2. Question– When will a field study with at least 5000 participants report results?
   Answers
   best guess = March 2021 (average)
   soonest = December 2020 (average)
   latest = July 2021 (average)
3. Question– when will a vaccine be available to those at highest risk from the virus in the USA and/or Canada?
   Answers
   best guess = March/April 2021 (average)
   soonest = February 2021 (average)
   latest = December 2021 (average)

The researchers believe that this kind of approach, where people are asked to suggest a range of responses provides a more complete picture of the range of expert belief than media quotes from individuals.

Likelihood of setbacks

The study also showed that about 1/3 of those surveyed believe that vaccine development is likely to face may face the following setbacks:

1. that the first vaccine widely deployed in the USA and/or Canada will receive a boxed warning from the FDA to highlight serious or life-threatening adverse reactions; or
2. that the first large field trial in the USA and/or Canada will report a null or negative result in terms of efficacy.

“Our study finds that experts are largely in agreement about the timeline for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine,” says Stephen Broomell, an associate professor at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, at Carnegie Mellon University. “While this does not track with many overly optimistic government projections, it reflects a belief that researchers are indeed on a faster pace to development compared to previous vaccines.”

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To read: “Expert Forecasts of COVID-19 Vaccine Development Timelines” by Patrick Bodilly Kane et al in the Journal of General Internal Medicine

DOI: 10.1007/s11606-020-06244-9

Funding: McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunity research grant.

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Hubble Watches Exploding Star Fade Into Oblivion

When a star unleashes as much energy in a matter of days as our Sun does in several billion years, you know it’s not going to remain visible for long.

Like intergalactic paparazzi, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the quick, fading celebrity status of a supernova, the self-detonation of a star. The Hubble snapshots have been assembled into a telling movie of the titanic stellar blast disappearing into oblivion in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light-years away.

Hubble began observing SN 2018gv in February 2018, after the supernova was first detected by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki a few weeks earlier in mid-January. Hubble astronomers were using the supernova as part of a program to precisely measure the expansion rate of the universe — a key value in understanding the physical underpinnings of the cosmos. The supernova serves as a milepost marker to measure galaxy distances, a fundamental value needed for measuring the expansion of space.

In the time-lapse sequence, spanning nearly a year, the supernova first appears as a blazing star located on the galaxy’s outer edge. It initially outshines the brightest stars in the galaxy before fading out of sight.

“No Earthly fireworks display can compete with this supernova, captured in its fading glory by the Hubble Space Telescope,” said Nobel laureate Adam Riess, of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, leader of the High-z Supernova Search Team and the Supernovae H₀ for the Equation of State (SH0ES) Team to measure the universe’s expansion rate.

The type of supernova seen in this sequence originated from a burned-out star — a white dwarf located in a close binary system — that is accreting material from its companion star. When the white dwarf reaches a critical mass, its core becomes hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion, turning it into a giant atomic bomb. This thermonuclear runaway process tears the dwarf apart. The opulence is short-lived as the fireball fades away.

Because supernovae of this type all peak at the same brightness, they are known as “standard candles,” which act as cosmic tape measures. Knowing the actual brightness of the supernova and observing its brightness in the sky, astronomers can calculate the distances of their host galaxies. This allows astronomers to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Over the past 30 years Hubble has helped dramatically improve the precision of the universe’s expansion rate.

Banner image: Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the quick, fading celebrity status of a supernova, the self-detonation of a star. The Hubble snapshots have been assembled into a telling movie of the titanic stellar blast disappearing into oblivion in the spiral galaxy NGC 2525, located 70 million light-years away. The supernova, named SN 2018gv, appears as a blazing star located on the galaxy’s outer edge. It initially outshines the brightest stars in the galaxy before fading out of sight. The time-lapse video consists of observations taken from February 2018 to February 2019. Credits: NASA, ESA, and A. Riess (STScI/JHU) and the SH0ES team; acknowledgment: M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

 

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Vitamin D Deficiency Leads to Obesity, Stunted Growth in Zebrafish

Using a zebrafish model, researchers from North Carolina State University have found that vitamin D deficiency during early development can disrupt the metabolic balance between growth and fat accumulation. The results suggest a linkage between vitamin D and metabolic homeostasis, or equilibrium.

The research team, led by Seth Kullman, professor of biological sciences at NC State, looked at groups of post-juvenile zebrafish on one of three diets: no vitamin D (or vitamin D null), vitamin D enriched and control. The zebrafish spent four months on their particular diet, then the researchers looked at their growth, bone density, triglyceride, lipid, cholesterol and vitamin D levels. They also examined key metabolic pathways associated with fat production, storage and mobilization and growth promotion.

The zebrafish in the vitamin D deficient group were, on average, 50% smaller than those in the other two groups, and they had significantly more fat reserves.

“The vitamin D deficient zebrafish exhibited both hypertrophy and hyperplasia – an increase in both the size and number of fat cells,” Kullman says. “They also had higher triglycerides and cholesterol, which are hallmarks of metabolic imbalance that can lead to cardio-metabolic disease. This, combined with the stunted growth, indicates that vitamin D plays an important role in the ability to channel energy into growth versus into fat storage.”

After the initial testing, the vitamin D deficient zebrafish were given a vitamin D enriched diet for an additional six months, to see if the results could be reversed. While the fish did continue to grow and begin to utilize fat reserves, they never caught up in size with the other cohorts and they retained residual fat deposits.

“This work shows that vitamin D deficiency can influence metabolic health by disrupting the normal balance between growth and fat accumulation,” Kullman says. “Somehow the energy that should be going toward growth is getting shunted into creating fat and lipids, and this occurrence cannot be easily reversed. While we don’t yet understand the mechanism, we are beginning to tease that out.”

Future work will involve looking at the offspring of vitamin D deficient mothers, to determine whether this vitamin deficiency has epigenetic effects that can be passed down.

The research appears in Scientific Reports and is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (STAR RD-83342002) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (grants T32 ES07046, P30ES025128, R35ES030443 and P42ES004699). Kullman is corresponding author. Megan Knuth, former NC State Ph.D. student currently at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, is first author. Debin Wan and Bruce Hammock, both from the University of California Davis, also contributed to the work.

“Vitamin D deficiency serves as a precursor to stunted growth and central adiposity in zebrafish”

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72622-2

Authors: Megan M. Knuth, Debabrata Mahapatra, Dereje Jima, Mac Law, Seth W. Kullman, North Carolina State University; Debin Wan, Bruce Hammock, University of California Davis
Published: Online Sept. 29, 2020 in Scientific Reports

Abstract:
Emerging evidence demonstrates the importance of sufficient vitamin D (1α, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) levels during early life stage development with deficiencies associated with long-term effects into adulthood. While vitamin D has traditionally been associated with mineral ion homeostasis, accumulating evidence suggests non-calcemic roles for vitamin D including metabolic homeostasis. In this study, we examined the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency (VDD) during early life stage development precedes metabolic disruption. Three dietary cohorts of zebrafish were placed on engineered diets including a standard laboratory control diet, a vitamin D null diet, and a vitamin D enriched diet. Zebrafish grown on a vitamin D null diet between 2-12 months post fertilization (mpf) exhibited diminished somatic growth and enhanced central adiposity associated with accumulation and enlargement of visceral and subcutaneous adipose depots indicative of both adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia. VDD zebrafish exhibited elevated hepatic triglycerides, attenuated plasma free fatty acids and attenuated lipoprotein lipase activity consistent with hallmarks of dyslipidemia. VDD induced dysregulation of gene networks associated with growth hormone and insulin signaling, including induction of suppressor of cytokine signaling. These findings indicate that early developmental VDD impacts metabolic health by disrupting the balance between somatic growth and adipose accumulation.

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How Steak-umm Became a Social Media Phenomenon During the Pandemic

A new analysis by North Carolina State University and Arizona State University outlines how a brand of frozen meat products took social media by storm – and what other brands can learn from the phenomenon.

“A lot of brands have struggled with how to use social media during the COVID-19 pandemic – they are unsure of how to talk with consumers,” says Ekaterina Bogomoletc, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student in NC State’s Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media program. “How do you communicate with your audience without sounding tone deaf about our new reality?

“But Steak-umm’s COVID-19 response brought the company thousands of new followers. Its approach actually worked. We thought: ‘That’s interesting. Why did this work?’”

Specifically, the researchers focused on Steak-umm’s Twitter account (@steak_umm) – particularly a series of tweets in early April that addressed issues such as how to distinguish between true and false information. The Steak-umm Twitter account followed up with additional threads on everything from critical thinking to science communication.

In addition to looking at data from the Steak-umm Twitter account, the researchers also analyzed a random sample of 1,000 tweets that mentioned or replied to Steak-umm. All of the tweets were from a two-week period in April.

Four key themes emerged from that analysis – all of them supportive of the Steak-umm brand. First was praise – Twitter users were overwhelmingly positive about Steak-umm’s foray into public-service tweets. Second was leadership. Third was surprise. And fourth was an intent to purchase Steak-umm products.

“It was pretty much everything a social media manager could hope for,” Bogomoletc says. “Steak-umm grew its audience, built community around its social media presence, had overwhelmingly positive public reactions, and even raised money for a nonprofit organization aimed at addressing hunger in the United States.”

But how did Steak-umm do it? And why did it work?

“Steak-umm was successful, in part, because it had adopted a ‘human’ approach to its social media presence before the pandemic, so it didn’t have to shift gears too much,” Bogomoletc says. “But its success also hinged on the fact that it communicated its values consistently and declared a commitment to public good. People responded to that.

“As for why it worked? There’s something called expectancy violation theory that seems relevant here. The theory finds that violating someone’s expectations can sometimes improve people’s perceptions of us. Basically, if we’re pleasantly surprised by something, it can make us like that thing more than we used to. In this case, the messages from this social media account were completely out of line with people’s expectations of a frozen meat product’s social media account. That sense of surprise was something we saw again and again in the social media messages we analyzed.”

The study’s findings may also give brands a path forward for communicating with audiences in the COVID and post-COVID eras.

“Steak-umm certainly demonstrated that a brand can connect effectively with its audiences online by communicating with them on a human-to-human level,” Bogomoletc says. “And it highlights that brands can contribute to social change in a meaningful way. In this case, the brand shared media and science literacy tools that helped readers navigate a crowded and confusing media landscape. That’s valuable.

“But that also means brands need to ensure they are behaving responsibly on social media platforms – because people are listening.”

The paper, “Frozen Meat Against COVID-19 Misinformation: An Analysis of Steak-Umm and Positive Expectancy Violations,” is published in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication. The paper was co-authored by Nicole Lee of Arizona State.

“Frozen Meat Against COVID-19 Misinformation: An Analysis of Steak-Umm and Positive Expectancy Violations”

Authors: Ekaterina Bogomoletc, North Carolina State University; Nicole M. Lee, Arizona State University

Published: Sept. 18, Journal of Business and Technical Communication

DOI: 10.1177/1050651920959187

Abstract: COVID-19 has forced many businesses to adjust their communication strategies to fit a new reality. One surprising example of this strategy adjustment came from the company Steak-umm, maker of frozen sliced beef. Instead of finding new ways to promote its products, the company shifted its focus to the public’s urgent needs, breaking down possible approaches to navigating information flow during the pandemic. This resulted in overwhelming praise on social and news media, including almost 60,000 new Twitter followers within a week. Drawing on expectancy violation theory, this case study examines Steak-umm’s strategy, the content of social media responses, and why the approach was successful.

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Why writing by hand makes kids smarter

New brain research shows that writing by hand helps children learn more and remember better. At the same time, schools are becoming more and more digital, and a European survey shows that Norwegian children spend the most time online of 19 countries in the EU.

Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU believes that national guidelines should be put into place to ensure that children receive at least a minimum of handwriting training.

Results from several studies have shown that both children and adults learn more and remember better when writing by hand.

Now another study confirms the same: choosing handwriting over keyboard use yields the best learning and memory.

Notes written and drawn by hand make it easier for the brain to see connections because you may create arrows, boxes and keywords that make it easier to get a holistic understanding. Photo: NTNU / Microsoft

“When you write your shopping list or lecture notes by hand, you simply remember the content better afterwards,” Van der Meer says.

Captures the brain’s electricity

Van der Meer and her colleagues have investigated this several times, first in 2017 and now in 2020.

In 2017, she examined the brain activity of 20 students. She has now published a study in which she examined brain activity in twelve young adults and twelve children.

This is the first time that children have participated in such a study.

Both studies were conducted using an EEG to track and record brain wave activity. The participants wore a hood with over 250 electrodes attached.

The brain produces electrical impulses when it is active. The sensors in the electrodes are very sensitive and pick up the electrical activity that takes place in the brain.

Handwriting gives the brain more hooks to hang memories on

– It is a little slower to write by hand, but it is important that children go through the tiring phase of learning it, says Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU. Photo: NTNU / Microsoft

Each examination took 45 minutes per person, and the researchers received 500 data points per second.

The results showed that the brain in both young adults and children is much more active when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard.

“The use of pen and paper gives the brain more ‘hooks’ to hang your memories on. Writing by hand creates much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain. A lot of senses are activated by pressing the pen on paper, seeing the letters you write and hearing the sound you make while writing. These sense experiences create contact between different parts of the brain and open the brain up for learning. We both learn better and remember better,” says Van der Meer.

Digital reality a big part of European children’s lives

She believes that her own and others’ studies emphasize the importance of children being challenged to draw and write at an early age, especially at school.

Today’s digital reality is that typing, tapping and screen time  are a big part of children’s and adolescents’ everyday lives.

A survey of 19 countries in the EU shows that Norwegian children and teens spend the most time online. The smartphone is a constant companion, followed closely by PCs and tablets.

The survey shows that Norwegian children ages 9 to16 spend almost four hours online every day, double the amount since 2010.

Kids’ leisure time spent in front of a screen is now amplified by schools’ increasing emphasis on digital learning.

Van der Meer thinks digital learning has many positive aspects, but urges handwriting training.

National guidelines needed

tapping, viewing and typing. A survey shows that Norwegian children in the age group 9-16 years spend almost four hours online every day. This is a doubling since 2010. Photo: Colourbox

“Given the development of the last several years, we risk having one or more generations lose the ability to write by hand. Our research and that of others show that this would be a very unfortunate consequence” of increased digital activity, says Meer.

She believes that national guidelines should be put in place that ensure children receive at least a minimum of handwriting training.

“Some schools in Norway have become completely digital and skip handwriting training altogether. Finnish schools are even more digitized than in Norway. Very few schools offer any handwriting training at all,” says Van der Meer.

In the debate about handwriting or keyboard use in school, some teachers believe that keyboards create less frustration for children. They point out that children can write longer texts earlier, and are more motivated to write because they experience greater mastery with a keyboard.

Important to be outside in all kinds of weather

“Learning to write by hand is a bit slower process, but it’s important for children to go through the tiring phase of learning to write by hand. The intricate hand movements and the shaping of letters are beneficial in several ways. If you use a keyboard, you use the same movement for each letter. Writing by hand requires control of your fine motor skills and senses. It’s important to put the brain in a learning state as often as possible. I would use a keyboard to write an essay, but I’d take notes by hand during a lecture,” says Van der Meer.

To develop the brain as best we can, we must live the real life, not the life behind a screen. That is the opinion of Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU. Photo: Colourbox

Writing by hand challenges the brain, as do many other experiences and activities.

“The brain has evolved over thousands of years. It has evolved to be able to take action and navigate appropriate behaviour. In order for the brain to develop in the best possible way, we need to use it for what it’s best at. We need to live an authentic life. We have to use all our senses, be outside, experience all kinds of weather and meet other people. If we don’t challenge our brain, it can’t reach its full potential. And that can impact school performance,” says Van der Meer.

Reference: The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults.
Eva Ose Askvik, F. R. (Ruud) van der Weel and Audrey L. H. van der Meer. Front. Psychol., 28 July 2020 | https://ift.tt/3n8vbsC

 

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Young gamers not more prone to psychiatric disorders

Children who show signs of addiction-like gaming are not more susceptible to mental health problems than their non-gaming peers. Some even experience less anxiety than others.

Many of our children play a lot of computer games. Some youths play so much and develop such substantial problems that a new diagnosis called Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been proposed.

A gaming disorder is characterized by causing a variety of problems in a person’s personal and work life. It can have an impact on school, work or friendships, and the gamer may continue to play even though he or she knows it is causing problems. Other symptoms of IGD are that the gamer is unable to stop or reduce the activity, and that the person may lose interest in other activities and lie about how much he or she plays.

Previous findings show that excessive screen use among young children can lead to them becoming less able to recognize emotions. But some children also experience valuable mastery through gaming, and many find friendship and other social togetherness.

Less anxiety

A research group at NTNU has looked at possible connections between children with symptoms of IGD and mental health problems. The results may reassure parents who might have been more permissive with digital gaming as they themselves try to work at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve found no connection between IGD and psychiatric problems, other than that 10- and 12-year-olds who had more symptoms of gaming addiction developed fewer symptoms of anxiety two years later, when they were 12 and 14 years old,” says Beate Wold Hygen.

She is a postdoctoral fellow at NTNU’s Department of Psychology and the first author of a new article in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

10 and 12-year-olds who had more symptoms of gambling addiction developed fewer symptoms of anxiety two years later. Illustration photo: Shutterstock, NTB scanpix

Yes, children actually develop fewer symptoms of anxiety, not more.

This finding could be related to the social aspects of the game, or it may be that gaming is a distraction that causes children to ruminate less than others.

No inverse relationship has been found.

“We looked at anxiety, depression, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. But children who had more symptoms of these mental disorders were not more susceptible to gaming addiction,” says Hygen.

Other factors come into play

“When psychiatric difficulties and IGD occur at the same time, which they do, they must be explained by other shared underlying factors,” says Professor Lars Wichstrøm, who is a co-author of the work and leads the research project on which the study is based.

The researchers are not sure exactly what factors come into play, but genes that affect both the tendency to become addicted, including to internet gaming, and having other mental health problems may play a role.

The figures are based on interviews with 702 children from the Trondheim Early Secure Study. These are children who have been followed up with questionnaires, tests, in-depth interviews and observation every other year since they were four years old. Today they are 16-17 years old.

Source: The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. The co‐occurrence between symptoms of internet gaming disorder and psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence: prospective relationships or common causes? Beate Wold Hygen, Věra Skalická, Frode Stenseng, Jay Belsky, Silje Steinsbekk, Lars Wichstrøm. First published: 05 July 2020.

 

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