Olatz Lopez-Fernandez

• PhD
• Lecturer & Researcher at National University of Distance Education

Background: Research on shared decision making (SDM) has significantly increased in the 21st century. This study aims to review publications that include patient decision aid (PtDA) tools for selecting medical treatments for breast cancer (BC) since the advent of the minimum International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) quality criteria. Met...

It’s been a long journey, but after a thorough qualitative study, a Delphi panel, a pilot test, and two cognitive group interviews, we are excited to announce the successful validation of the Plan-net 25 scale. This scale is designed to measure the overvaluation of social media in adolescents. We believe this variable is key in understanding a rele...

Introduction. Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that can lead to significant disability and have a major impact on social and occupational functioning. It tends to decrease life expectancy, which could be attributed to a variety of factors, including poor health habits, barriers to healthcare access, and the stigmatization of mental illnes...

There are few cross-cultural studies utilizing longitudinal analysis to explore problematic internet use (PIU), and almost none among adults. The present follow-up study compared three waves across 12-month period every six months and observed the natural course and trajectory of PIU in a European multi-country sample of adults from 11 countries (F...

Introducción: Existe una alta prevalencia de patologías de salud mental (SM) en estudiantes de medicina. Es posible que la pandemia del COVID-19 los haya incrementado, afectando el ámbito personal y académico. Objetivos: Analizar la SM, el impacto de la COVID-19, los cambios en la percepción del entorno educativo y del internado clínico en relación...

(1) Background: In the “post-COVID-19 era”, there is a need to focus on properly assessing and addressing the extent of its well-established mental health collateral damage. The “Electronic Mental Wellness Tool” (E-mwTool) is a 13-item validated stepped-care or stratified management instrument that aims at the high-sensitivity captures of individua...

(1) Background: The present study aimed to investigate the onset of mental disorders in the six months following hospitalization for COVID-19 in people without a previous psychiatric history. (2) Methods: This was a longitudinal study carried out among adults who had been hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection. Six months after discharge, a series...

Background: The present study compared adult usage patterns of online activities, the frequency rate of problematic internet use (PIU), and risk factors (including the psychopathology associated with PIU, i.e., distress and impulsivity) among adults in 15 countries from Europe, America, and Asia. Methods: A total of 5130 adults from Belgium, Fin...

The relationship between suicidality, depression, anxiety, and well-being was explored in young adults (median age 20.7 years) from the State of Yucatan (Mexico), which has a suicide rate double that of other Mexican states. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 20 universities in Yucatan and 9,366 students were surveyed using validated questi...

This commentary examines the proposal made by Brand et al. (2022) regarding a framework outlining relevant criteria for considering possible behavioural addictions within the current World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) category of ‘other specified disorders due to addictive behaviours’. We agree with the fr...

Surgeons and cancer patients are starting to open the debate on how personalised medicine could use shared decision-making (SDM) to balance the personal and clinical components and thus improve the quality and value of care. Personalised precision medicine (PPM) has traditionally focused on the use of genomic information when prescribing treatments...

The literature on online gaming has generally focused on male gamers and has been dominated by negative aspects of gaming. The present study addresses the gender gap in this field by exploring experiences of female gamers further by unravelling several positive experiences alongside some potentially harmful tendencies connected to gaming, including...

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is considered the ‘gold standard’ in the treatment of addictive disorders related to excessive technology use. However, the cognitive components of problematic internet use are not yet well-known. The aim of the present study was to explore the cognitive components, that according to problematic users, can lead t...

The smartphone revolution has placed powerful, multipurpose devices in the hands of youth across the globe, prompting worries about the potential negative consequences of these technologies on mental health. Many assessment tools have been created, seeking to classify individuals into problematic and non-problematic smartphone users. These are iden...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that community infection control measures during the COVID-19 outbreak have modified the number and natural history of acute surgical inflammatory processes (ASIP—appendicitis, cholecystitis, diverticulitis and perianal abscesses) admissions. This study aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the presenta...

Background: Can we create a technological solution to flexibly self-manage undergraduate General Surgery practices within hospitals? Before the pandemic, the management of clerkships was starting to depend less on checkerboards. This study aims to explore undergraduates' perceptions of doing rotations in teaching hospitals using different teaching...

This study uses an innovative statistical strategy to test the role of certain variables as predictors of problematic Internet and mobile phone usage among adolescents in Spain and in the United Kingdom . A paper-and-pencil questionnaire was used, with socio-demographics and patterns of technology usage as variables, and two tests were administered...

Although time perception has mainly been explored through the prospective paradigm, it appears that emotional stimuli lead to an overestimation of time either through an arousing or an attentional effect. Amongst the emotional stimuli, emotional expressions are of inlerest due to their social importance. The purpose of this paper was to systematica...

Background and aims The growing problem of Internet addiction has been acknowledged through the inclusion of Gaming Disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in April 2013. In response to a recent review report on the research published in Europe since the adoption, this review su...

This timely editorial paper outlines some of the main emerging research on technological topics on health and education approaches to Internet use-related problems before and during the beginning of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Background: The aim is to provide a brief overview to facilitate a rapid comprehensive and practical approach to...

This commentary examines the proposed framework in relation to current policy options and preventive strategies and adds classical prevention and ecological models to tackle internet use-related addiction problems. Specifically, it highlights the preventive developments regarding contributions to promote the healthy use of technologies, and the nee...

Compromised time control is a variable of interest among disordered gamers because time spent on videogames can directly affect individuals’ lives. Although time perception appears to be closely associated with this phenomenon, previous studies have not systematically found a relationship between time perception and gaming. Therefore, the purpose o...

Internet use-related addiction problems are increasingly being recognized on a European scale due to international health organizations considering gaming addiction. In April 2013, the American Psychiatric Association recognized Internet Gaming Disorder in the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and in April 2018, the World...

La integración de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en la vida diaria ha facilitado gran parte de la actividad humana, pero a su vez también ha producido nuevos problemas derivados de un uso maladaptativo o adictivo. En el caso de las poblaciones jóvenes se ha podido observar que en algunos pocos casos empieza a desarrollarse un p...

Research investigating female gaming has begun to emerge despite gaming being traditionally more popular with males. Research in the 21st century has drawn attention to the role of women in culture, society, and technology, and female gaming is one of the growing phenomena not to have been researched in depth. The aim of the present paper was to re...

The 14-item Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) is one of the most frequently internationally adapted psychometric instruments developed to assess generalized problematic Internet use. Multiple adaptations of this instrument have led to versions in different languages (e.g., Arabic and French), and different numbers of items (e.g., from 5 to 16 it...

Background: Growing evidence suggests that certain foods have addictive properties. Food addiction has sparked interest within the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food addiction to examine their differential characteristics, and the association between food addiction symptoms and physical and psycho...

Research investigating female gaming is relatively scarce, and past research has demonstrated that men are more likely to be problematic gamers. Few studies have focused on female gamers in community samples, and those that have been published have mainly collected qualitative data in Europe. There is case study evidence suggesting clinicians are i...

Videogames have become one of the most popular leisure activities worldwide, including multiple game genres with different characteristics and levels of involvement required. Although a small minority of excessive players suffer detrimental consequences including impairment of several cognitive skills (e.g., inhibition, decision-making), it has als...

The field of technological behavioural addictions is moving towards specific problems (i.e., gaming disorder). However, more evidence of generalised versus specific Internet use-related addiction problems (generalised pathological Internet use (GPIU) vs. specific pathological Internet use (SPIU)) is still needed. This mixed methods study aimed to d...

Families can play an essential role in preventing violent and antisocial behaviors, which are considered a significant public health issue. However, some studies argue that most children are antisocial only during adolescence, and even teenagers can mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and well-adjusted. This study analyzed patterns...

The proposed introduction of gaming disorder (GD) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has led to a lively debate over the past year. Besides the broad support for the decision in the academic press, a recent publication by van Rooij et al. (2018) repeated the...

The prevalence of mobile phone use across the world has increased greatly over the past two decades. Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU) has been studied in relation to public health and comprises various behaviours, including dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use. These types of problematic mobile phone behaviours are typically assessed with th...

Executive summary:  Social media use is one of the online activities of choice in late childhood and early adolescence incurring significant psychosocial benefits (i.e. emotional support and community building, self-expression) but also negative impacts.  Excessive recreational screen time has been associated with serious physical conditions (i.e...

Gambling disorder is a well-established behavioural addiction, which was classified with substance-related disorders in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Although craving was introduced as a new diagnostic criterion for substance-related disorders, it was not included for gambling disorder. This study a...

Background and aims Gaming applications have become one of the main entertainment features on smartphones, and this could be potentially problematic in terms of dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use among a minority of individuals. A cross-national study was conducted in Belgium and Finland. The aim was to examine the relationship between gaming...

The proposed introduction of gaming disorder (GD) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has led to a lively debate over the past year. Besides the broad support for the decision in the academic press, a recent publication by van Rooij et al. (2018) repeated the...

Multi-platform digital media use and gaming have been increased in recent years. The aim of this study was to examine associations between socio-demographics and digital gaming behavior characteristics (i.e., gaming time, medium, and genres) with problematic gaming behavior in adolescents. A convenience sample of Finnish junior high school students...

Background The recent paper by Aarseth et al. (2016) questioned whether problematic gaming should be considered a new disorder particularly because “Gaming Disorder” (GD) has been identified as a disorder to be included in the next (11th) revision of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Methods This st...

There is now a growing literature demonstrating the excessive gaming can have negative detrimental effects on a small minority of gamers. This has led to much debate in the psychological literature on both the positive and negative effects of gaming. One specific area that has been investigated is the effect of gaming on different types of cognitiv...

Background and aims: Despite many positive benefits, mobile phone use can be associated with harmful and detrimental behaviors. The aim of this study was twofold: to examine (a) cross-cultural patterns of perceived dependence on mobile phones in ten European countries, first, grouped in four different regions (North: Finland and UK; South: Spain an...

Mobile phones appear to have become one of the main entertainment features in adolescents’ life, which has also been suggested to be potentially addictive. A shortened version of a scale used to detect this potential addiction, the Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale (MPPUS-10; Foerster, Roser, Schoeni, & Röösli, 2015) has been extracted from the Mo...

This exploratory analysis of smart partnerships identifies the risk of increasing the digital divide with the deployment of data analytics. Smart partnerships in education appear to include a process of evolution into a synergy of strategic and holistic approaches that enhance the quality of education with digital technologies, harnessing ICT “smar...

In this article we present a clinical analysis of the psychopathological differences between women patients with Affective Dependence problems with and without comorbid substance use. The patients were assessed trough the TDS-100, SCL-90-R, BIS-11 questionnaires and a semistructured interview adapted from the SCID-I interview. The groups were creat...

Aim: To provide a comprehensive overview of clinical studies on the clinical picture of Internet-use related addictions from a holistic perspective. A literature search was conducted using the database Web of Science. Methods: Over the last 15 years, the number of Internet users has increased by 1000%, and at the same time, research on addictive...

Background and aims. Gambling disorder is a well-established behavioral addiction, and has been aligned to substance-related addictions in the DSM-5. While craving is recognized as a criterion for substance related addictions, it was not retained for gambling disorder, evidence currently being sparser. Research is thus needed to investigate this ph...

Introduction The American Psychiatric Association introduced in Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in the appendix as a tentative disorder in the last edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, currently no systematic review exists about excessive gaming viewed from a clinical perspective. Objectives and aims To rev...

Background and aims: There is a need to explore mobile phone use patterns for entertainment and related addictive characteristics. A cross-national study between Belgium and Finland was conducted to explore this relationship. The aim was to examine whether adults play games excessively through smartphones as well as to identify the role of differen...

In this article we present a clinical analysis of the psychopathological differences between women patients with Affective Dependence problems with and without comorbid substance use. The patients were assessed trough the TDS-100, SCL-90-R, BIS-11 questionnaires and a semistructured interview adapted from the SCID I interview. The groups were creat...

Addiction to technologies has been a widely debated scientific and clinically, being a condition for further study as potential psychiatric disorder. Some Spanish scales measure Internet addiction, but no one has been validated clinically. The aims were to describe a clinical sample of patients in treatment for a technology addiction, and to valida...

Introduction In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association included Internet Gaming Disorder in the appendix of the 5th edition of the DSM-5, suggesting more research is necessary for the condition to be officially accepted as mental disorder. Criticisms have emerged as to the viability, validity and reliability of the proposed condition, and resea...

This commentary paper critically discusses the recent debate paper by Petry et al. (2014) that argued there was now an international consensus for assessing Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). Our collective opinions vary considerably regarding many different aspects of online gaming. However, we contend that the paper by Petry and colleagues does not...

This exploratory analysis of smart partnerships identifies the risk of increasing the digital divide with the deployment of data analytics. Smart partnerships in education appear to include a process of evolution into a synergy of strategic and holistic approaches that enhance the quality of education with digital technologies, harnessing ICT “smar...

Introduction In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association included Internet Gaming Disorder in the appendix of the 5th edition of the DSM-5, suggesting more research is necessary for the condition to be officially accepted as mental disorder. Criticisms have emerged as to the viability, validity and reliability of the proposed condition, and resea...

Abstract Internet addiction (IA) is the most studied behavioral addiction. However, few studies have been conducted that simultaneously include several countries to attain an inter-cultural and international perspective on the phenomenon. The aim of this systematic review is to observe the characteristics of cross-cultural IA studies, in order to e...

During the past two decades, Internet addiction (IA) has been the most commonly used term in research into online activities and their influence on the development of behavioral addictions. The aim of this review is to assess the impact of the concept of Internet gaming disorder (IGD), proposed by the American Psychiatric Association, on the scient...

Despite the many positive outcomes, excessive mobile phone use is now often associated with potentially harmful and/or disturbing behaviors (e.g., symptoms of deregulated use, negative impact on various aspects of daily life such as relationship problems and work intrusion). Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) has generally been considered as a beh...

Resumen Diversos autores defienden la Dependencia Emocional como una categoría diagnóstica pro-pia. El perfil psicopatológico de las personas afectadas por este trastorno ha sido expuesto a nivel teórico o basado en observaciones clínicas. Con este estudio se pretende determinar el perfil psicopatológico de una muestra de pacientes que presentaban...

Despite its many undoubted advantages, mobile phone use has been associated with harmful and/or maladaptive behaviour. Problematic mobile phone use is considered as an inability of individuals to regulate their use of the mobile phone, and it eventually leads to negative consequences in daily life. The first goal of this article is to define and co...

Mixed methods research is becoming increasingly important in several scientific areas. The analysis of prevalence rates is a new line of research that has emerged in mixed methods research, and this methodological approach has only been applied carefully in a handful of journals. The purpose of this article was to analyse the prevalence of mixed me...

Research into problematic video gaming has increased greatly over the last decade and many screening instruments have been developed to identify such behaviour. This study re-examined the Problematic Videogame Playing [PVP] Scale. The objectives of the study were to (i) examine its psychometric properties in two European countries, (ii) estimate th...

Introduction. A research agenda has been prepared to study potential technological use disorders cross-culturally among Eastern and Western countries. Recent advances suggest that technological addictions present commonalities with substance use disorders. However, the cyberaddiction spectrum is heterogeneous, with various types of psychological fa...

Introduction. For over two decades, internet and gaming addiction has been studied using normative populations. Few studies have examined clinical samples, and even less attention has been paid to the clinician's perspective. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to examine the clinical characteristics of these technological addictions from...

Introduction. Potentially addictive mobile phone use has been studied scientifically during the last decade; however, very few revisions have been done with this recent cyberaddiction. A review has been prepared to observe conceptualizations commonly used defining facets on mobile phone dysfunctional use, and especially its measurement through vali...

Research into online addictions has increased substantially over the last decade, particularly amongst youth. This study adapted the Problematic Internet Entertainment Use Scale for Adolescents [PIEUSA] for use with a British population. The adapted scale was used to (i) validate the instrument for English-speaking adolescent samples, (ii) estimate...

It has been undertaken a study to analyse the possible Differential Item Functioning (DIF) of the Problem Video game Playing (PVP; Tejeiro Salguero & Bersabé Morán, 2002) in Spanish and English adolescents. The presence of DIF in linguistic versions of a test can threaten the validity of inferences based on comparisons between groups. We conducted...

This article describes the teaching experience gained from the introduction of the Spanish electronic European Language Portfolio (eELP+14) in the university teaching of the Erasmus Intensive Language Course (EILC) within the Vives Network of Universities. The aim was to seek the views of teachers during their first experimental work with undergrad...

This thesis focuses on the development and adaptation of psychometric scales to evaluate the problematic use of Internet and the mobile phone in adolescents in Barcelona and London. It aims to describe the characteristics and patterns of this use, to categorize problematic users of either technology and to test category validity by developing the P...

The study was aimed both at adapting the McAdams's generative concern and generative behavior scales into Spanish and at studying generativity in older age and its relationship with well-being. The sample was made up of 165 volunteers aged 65 and over. As well as the Spanish version of the generativity scales, they completed a satisfaction with lif...

Abstract The problematic use of mobile phones among adolescents has not been widely studied. There are very few instruments for assessing potential technological addiction to mobile phones, or for categorizing different types of users or uses. The most widely used scale is the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS), which is used to study adult pop...

Abstract Many researchers and professionals have reported nonsubstance addiction to online entertainments in adolescents. However, very few scales have been designed to assess problem Internet use in this population, in spite of their high exposure and obvious vulnerability. The aim of this study was to review the currently available scales for ass...

Objetive The therapeutic communities (TC) constitute one of the most extensive treatments for the drug dependencies; however, its investigation is scarce. The aim to do a systematic review to know the methodological elements of the short term follow-up studies and, at the same time, describe the consequences of the TC. Material and method It was a...

1. RESUMEN: El estudio pretende conocer la opinión de los estudiantes Erasmus de los "European Intensive Language Courses" de la Red Vives respecto al aprendizaje del catalán con el Portfolio Europeo de las Lenguas electrónico español (ePEL+14). Se administraron dos cuestionarios ad hoc online al inicio y final de la intervención. Los resultados mu...

(English follows Spanish) It pretends to prove the Spanish electronic European Language Portfolio (ePEL+14) in language learning in the university context. The European Intensive Language Courses teachers from the Vives Network were trained to implement it and observe which impact has in their teaching and students. With pretest and posttest me...

El uso problemático del teléfono móvil es un fenómeno emergente en nuestra sociedad, que parece afectar especialmente a la población adolescente. El conocimiento acerca del uso problemático de esta tecnología resulta necesario, dado que puede desarrollarse un patrón comportamental con características adictivas. Apenas existen escalas que midan el p...

En aquest article es descriu l'adaptació de l'assignatura “Dissenys experimentals i aplicats” de la Facultat de Psicologia de la Universitat de Barcelona (UB) segons les directrius de la UB marcades per adaptar-se a l'Espai Europeu d'Educació Superior (EEES). L'objectiu de la recerca és conèixer l'opinió dels estudiants respecte a la innovació doce...

Problematic use of the mobile telephone is an emerging phenomenon in our society, and one which particularly affects the teenage population. Knowledge from research on the problematic use of this technology is necessary, since such use can give rise to a behavioural pattern with addictive characteristics. There are hardly any scales for measuring p...

En España, las Comunidades Terapéuticas (CT) constituyen un modelo de tratamiento común en las adicciones, aunque apenas existe investigación acerca de su eficacia y la persistencia de sus logros. Objetivos: Evaluar los efectos a corto, medio y largo plazo del tratamiento de la adicción al alcohol o cocaína en las CT de la �Fundación Salud y Comuni...

Mixed methods research involves the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods in the same research study, and it is becoming increasingly important in several scientific areas. The aim of this paper is to review and compare through a mixed methods multiple-case study the application of this methodology in three reputable behavioural scie...

In Spain, the Therapeutic Community (TC) constitutes a common model of treatment in the field of addictions, although there hardly exists any investigation about its efficiency and the persistence of its attainments. To evaluate the short, half and long term effects of treatment of addiction to alcohol or cocaine in the TC run by "Fundacion Salud y...