This season brings a large harvest of MD developments. Let's start with some science news.
MD publications
A new study by Alessandro Musetti and his colleagues in Current Psychology examined the role of traumatic life experiences and immature, neurotic, and mature defense styles in MD. They found that these defense styles fully mediated the relationship between traumatic life experiences and MD. The authors suggested that clinical interventions for people with a history of traumatic experience who developed MD should aim to help them acquire more adaptive coping strategies to deal with traumatic memories.

The Universitá di Parma spokesperson office has also acknowledged Alessandro. They issued a press release reporting an interview with Dr. Musetti about MD at the British Guardian. The story titled ‘I just go into my head and enjoy it: the people who can’t stop daydreaming’ also featured interviews with individuals struggling with MD and included comments by Nirit Soffer-Dudek and Eli Somer.

Congratulations are also due to Hildy Wen. She led a peer-reviewed paper titled: “Daily feelings and the affective valence of daydreams in maladaptive daydreaming: A longitudinal analysis.” This research was published in APA’s Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. The findings indicate that individuals who daydream to cope with negative memories, feelings, and realities experience more negative emotions following the daydream. In contrast, individuals who daydream about rewarding pastimes and as a means of wish fulfillment typically experience more positive emotions.

An e-poster titled ‘Maladaptive Daydreaming: An introduction to a new condition’ was published in European Psychiatry, insisting that there is sufficient evidence for MD to be classified as an official disorder. The author stated that being included in the ICD-10 and DSM-5 would motivate research, expand the identification of this disorder in patients, and advance access to help and support. We agree.

PsychTests is a one-of-a-kind APA database of psychological tests and measures designed for use in social and behavioral science research. The MDS-16 is now listed In PsychTests and can be accessed through APA PsycNet, APA's dedicated search platform for all of our database products. With an institutional or individual subscription to PsycNet that includes PsycTests, the DOI can serve as a direct link with the inclusion of the prefix https://doi.org/. In addition to APA's own PsycNet search platform, PsycTests is available on the EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and OvidSP platforms.
APA only lists translations that have peer-reviewed supporting data. Click on the following links to see the PsychTests listings of the original 14-item scale, the MDS-16, the Structured Clinical Interview for Maladaptive Daydreaming (SCIMD), and the MDS-16 translations into Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Italian.
Student research

Lena Kühni of the Gymnasium Lerbermatt in Switzerland submitted her final thesis titled: “Maladaptive Daydreaming An academic Performance Study.” She surveyed 345 students. She found evidence that Maladaptive Daydreaming interferes with students’ performance in school.

Caroline Bee of Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, completed her thesis titled ‘Intégrer la pair-aidance auprès de personnes souffrant d’un trouble de la rêverie compulsive’ (Implementing peer support with people suffering from compulsive daydreaming disorder). She concluded that individuals with MD participate in Internet peer support because it raises MD awareness, helps participants learn coping strategies, and provides a platform for promoting the expression of feelings of shame and isolation.
MD educational video
Filmmaker Thomas Renckens has uploaded an interview he made with Eli Somer as part of his research for his award-winning documentary “The Daydreamers.”
MD in the press and digital media

The Irish Times, an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper with online digital publication launched in 1859, featured an article on MD quoting Drs. Soffer-Dudek and Somer. The story titled: “‘There was a point where it was like an addiction: The people who daydream for hours a day: Researchers explain maladaptive daydreaming, which may soon be recognised as a psychiatric disorder” can be read here.

Yediot Aharonot (Hebrew: Latest News), founded in 1939, is a national daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv and the largest paid newspaper in Israel by sales and circulation. The newspaper published a story on MD in its weekend magazine titled: “The dark side of daydreaming.”

Visão is a Portuguese news magazine published weekly in Lisbon and modeled on Time and Der Spiegel. Their recent story titled: Afinal, é bom ou mau sonharmos acordados? Depende (After all, is it good or bad to daydream? It depends) presented MD to the public in Portugal.
Hit Hard News is a website that publishes “information needed by professionals on the go” and reports Tech, Gaming, Entertainment, and World News. Hit Hard News recently featured a report on MD bolstering a sensationalist headline that alerted: ‘Daydreamers, Beware: You May Have A Disorder.’

Maladaptive daydreaming was also discussed in the past month in an opinion column of The Medium. The Medium is an open platform where over 100 million readers come to find expert and undiscovered voices alike that discuss the latest discoveries.

Forbes recently stated that “Her Campus” website has amassed the largest female college audience of any publication. It is a 100% women-owned-and-operated endeavor and the #1 media portfolio for college women and Gen Z. The popular platform recently published a story titled “The Magic of maladaptive daydreaming.”

MD was also featured in The Wom, a new Italian social and web magazine dedicated to young millennials. Only a few months after its launch, it attracted a fanbase of 3.6 million followers, 90% of which are women, and an audience of 5 million unique users per month, positioning the brand as a leader in the Italian female under 35 segment of the population. Click here to access their story titled: “Maladaptive daydreaming: Perché può far male e come smetere di farlo” (Maladaptive daydreaming: why it can harm you and how to stop it”).
It's a beautiful time of year. Enjoy it!
