This study analyzed 817 articles published in Korean professional journals over the past three years, from 2020 to 2022, using text mining techniques to identify trends in addiction research in Korea and explore development directions. The analysis results are as follows. First, as a result of the analysis of the top keywords, online addiction studies such as smartphones, games, Internet, gambling, and relationship addiction were prominent as the top keywords. Second, as a result of TF-IDF analysis, many addiction studies related to behavioral addiction such as smartphones, games, the Internet, and work addiction have been conducted over the past three years, and in particular, there are many studies on addiction problems such as smartphones, games, and the Internet that have not yet been clinically diagnosed as addiction problems. This is the same as the result of word frequency analysis, and it can be interpreted that recent studies have been remarkably conducted on more diverse addiction problems.
Third, the 2-gram analysis shows that words that mainly correspond to behavioral addiction, such as smartphones, games, and the Internet, appear side by side with the keyword addiction, and among them, words paired with smartphones are mentioned a lot in research papers and are being studied.
Fourth, as a result of the CONCOR analysis, there were five clusters: a study on universal addiction issues such as alcohol use disorders and the Internet, a study of recovery on drug and gambling addiction, a study on mobile devices and media addiction, a study on the latest trends related to behavioral addiction, and other addiction issues. Finally, based on the results of this study, a direction for future addiction-related research was suggested.