For the first time, we have presented clinical cases of Game Transfer Phenomena at a conference.
My dear colleague Alex Basche, psychotherapist specialising in problematic media use, and I presented the cases of three young males (10 to 16 years old) who experienced auditory phenomena such as hearing sounds, voices and music, at the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry.
The aim of this work was to show the interplay between GTP and patients’ symptomatology, as well as to provide insights on the potential benefits of using the GTP framework in clinical contexts.
The analysis of the cases showed how the impact of GTP can vary from individual to individual. On the one hand, hearing voices and sounds from the game can converge with clinical symptoms, and cause distress and compromise mental stability. On the other hand, re-experiencing auditory cues from the videogame can be appraised as pleasurable and used as a way to cope with “withdrawal symptoms” of gaming disorder. However, the fascination for GTP can lead to compulsive behaviours.
The cases also revealed that the GTP framework could be an effective psycho-pedagogic method and support differential diagnosis.
Read the abstract or have a look at the poster for further details.
