EU-PUI Newsletter Number 6
15/04/2020

Caring for the safety and well-being of our community has been and always will be our Action’s most important priority, especially during challenging times like these.

EU-PUI Newsletter Number 5
02/10/2019

We had a very productive set of workgroup meetings in copenhagen, culiminating in our management committee meeting where we were able to discuss the great progress we made in the last four months. Thank you to everyone who came to share their excellent ideas to drive the Net&Me COST Action Ca16207 forward.

EU-PUI Newsletter Number 4
12/06/2019

First of all I would like to thank everyone for bringing their expertise and experience, and engaging in such a fruitful constructive and open exchanges throughout the whole day fourth management committee meeting of COST Action CA16207 “European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet” in Warsaw…

EU-PUI Newsletter Number 3
20/10/2018

A lot of hard work went into making our third COST Action meeting go off so smoothly. I would like to thank all who made it happen. Our host, Prof. Jose Magrina Menchon, and his team did an excellent job organizing and managing both our meeting and “Hooked on WiFi” event…

EU-PUI Newsletter Number 2

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each of you who participated in COST Actions meeting in Cologne on 22nd of April. Over 50 internationally renowned scientists and practitioners gave their time and resources to attend and to contribute. You made our meeting a great success and it was a true pleasure to see so many of you there! I hope you used the opportunity to extend your existing research networks. I am sure that this healthy cooperation will continue to enrich our work in the future.

Special thanks must go to Prof Dr Matthias Brand for hosting us during the event and to our Administrator Ms Natalie Hall and the four work packages teams and their leaders, who did outstanding work in presenting what was achieved in a half a year period…

COST Action Newsletter

We are proud to announce the start of our new COST Action CA16207 project. We have been working hard organizing the material for setting up our project’s website, which is called “Net&Me”. Please take a look at the website to find out more about our members and activities…

07/04/2020 ***New Study on Fitness lifestyles, Body Image and New Habits during the COVID19 Pandemic***

Take part in our up to 10 minute survey. Results will help identify the impact of physical distancing and improve mental health.

20/05/2020 –  Lithuanian press release about preventing problematic internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our COST Action communication manager Julius Burkauskas comments via the “Skaitmeninės etikos centras”.

25/02/2020 OUR FIRST PODCAST/ Interview with Net&Me COST Action Ca16207 UK National Representative Dr Davis N Mpavaenda on Problematic Internet Use.

31/12/2019 Our Net&Me COST Action Ca16207 member Prof. Mark Potenza interviewed by Sigutė Limontaitė  for “DELFI” on addiction to pornography.

09/12/2019 – COST Action Members Edna Grünblatt and Susanne Walitza talk on Problematic Internet Use: Screen Addiction.

29/11/2019 –  UK press release about problematic smartphone use basing on COST Action Member Sam Chamberlain comments via the Science Media Centre (SMC)

15/11/2019 – The Times, front page: “Experts claim addiction to shopping is a mental illness” – newspaper article basing on COST Action Member Astrid Mueller’s study “Online shopping in treatment-seeking patients with buying-shopping disorder” –  published on Comprehensive Psychiatry

This study got the attention of printed and eletronic newspapers (please see links below) and generated several radio interviews:

15.11.19: Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2

22.11.19: Holly Keogh, talkRADIO

26.11.19: Claudia Sandler, PULS 4, Austria

27.11.19: Daniela Schulze, Uniradio Mephisto 67.6, Leipzig, Germany

09/10/2019 COST Action National Representative Dr Zsolt Demetrovics “Previous research has linked escapism to psychiatric distress and gaming disorder in recreational gamers. While esport gamers have many positive motivators like skill development, our study found that excessive immersion by some individuals can indicate mental health issues”

09/10/2019 COST Action National Representative Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones – A new public body is necessary to effectively regulate the UK video game industry

08/10/2019 COST Action National Representative Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones reacts to the news that first kids set to receive NHS therapy treatment for gaming and social media addiction

08/10/2019 Another interview by Lithuanian COST Action National Representative Ms Vilma Liaugaudaitė (article in Lithuanian)

COST information day 2019 September 17 in Montenegro

13/09/2019 Lithuanian COST Action National Representative Ms Vilma Liaugaudaite gave an interview on problematic usage of mobile phone (article in Lithuanian)

19/08/2019 Our COST Action‘s representative Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones comments on the situation that addicted teenagers travelling to overseas clinics as there are no NHS facilities to treat gaming disorder

30/04/2019 Our Net&Me COST Action Ca16207 member Prof. Mark Potenza interviewed by Diane Sawyer for a ABC 20/20 episode on gaming, screen time and internet use

01/04/2019 Expert reaction to study on depression and social media as published in EClinicalMedicin. Prof Naomi Fineberg, spoke as a Chair of the COST Action group into Problematic Internet Usage commenting research study ‘Social media use and adolescent mental health: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study’ by Kelly et al.

09/03/2019 “Riscos e Desafios” (Risks and Challenges) is a Portuguese initiative, by Administração Regional de Saúde do Norte and supported by Net&Me COST Action Ca16207, which addresses all 1st year Porto Polytechnic students and aims to promote academic success and prevent risky behaviour by developing core competencies for well-being and health.

19/01/2019 E- Magazine Portal: “Science for All”. Title: “The Digital Revolution – a Problem or a Solution for the Human Evolution”. Author: Biljana Gjoneska (Research Associate, MASA) (article in Macedonian)

12/2018 – Problematic Internet Use and Its Impact on Anxiety – Dr. Vera Nezgovorova, Dr. Eric. Hollander, Dr. Naomi  Fineberg, Dr. Jon Grant, Dr. Sam Chamberlain, Kyra Citron

In this blog post we provide a description of Problematic Internet Use, describe screening measures existing in the field and key unanswered questions, provide clinical patients examples, introduce COST project, suggest a design of an upcoming study, describe available applications (“apps”)

29/11/2018 E-Magazine Portal: “Faculties”. Title: “The Internet Opens the Door for New and Seldom Popularized Addictions“. Author: Biljana Gjoneska (Research Associate, MASA) (article in Macedonian)

22/11/2018 Georgian representatives report on COST activities in Tbilisi State Medical University (article in Georgian)

19/10/2018 Printed Newspaper “Nova Makedonija” Title: “A Manifesto for the Problematic Usage of Internet in Everyday Life“ Author: Nada Pop-Jordanova (Academician, MASA) National dissemination (article in Macedonian)

09/10/2018 Press Release European College of Neuropsychopharmacology about COST:

“European researchers set out priorities for dealing with problem internet use”

The manifesto got the attention of The Guardian, The Telegraph, New Scientist, ITV news, Medical Xpress, Yahoo,EurekAlert! and CAM  among others!

05/10/2018 Our Action’s researchers set out priorities for dealing with problem internet use

21/09/2018 COST Action is introduced in Science Gallery London on the 21st of September.

16/05/2018 Short movie: “Child”, related to the Problem of Online Gaming (ENG sub). Director: Radovan Petrovic.