Capio Nightingale Hospital, in central London, launched the service following calls from parents concerned about their children’s behaviour. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham said parents told him their children flew “into a rage” when they were told to turn off their computer and police had even been called to sort out the rows.

What mean the expert

Dr Graham, who is leading the new addiction treatment, said services need to “adapt quickly” to help young people affected by technology addiction – who he dubbed “screenagers” – rather than sticking with the same treatment models used for substance abuse. “Mental health services need to adapt quickly to the changing worlds that young people inhabit, and understand just how seriously their lives can be impaired by unregulated time online, on-screen or in-game,” he said. “We have found that many of the existing services fail to recognise the complexity of these situations, borrowing from older models of addiction and substance misuse to very limited effect. “This is why Capio Nightingale Hospital has launched the first Young Person Technology Addiction Service, which we hope will address the underlying causes of this addiction to transform screenagers back into teenagers.”
The treatment aims to increase off-screen social activities and improve the person’s confidence in face-to-face situations, the lack of which may have made them more susceptible to technology addiction.