Tuesday, February 2, 2010

'Internet addiction' linked to depression, says study

Posted on 8:45 PM by Latest News


The study, reported in the daily Psychopathology, lead 1.2% of family surveyed were "internet addicts", and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University pair haggard they could not make known one necessarily caused the other, again that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.
The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.
Recruitment was via links on extroverted networking sites. people were asked how much they used the internet also for what purposes.
They were further asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
If a lattice addict is substituting meaningful friendships besides socialising with virtual sense on the internet, this talent trust an resisting affect on their mental interest
Sophie Corlett of the charity conjecture The respondents were aged 16 to 51, hold back an average age of 21.
The authors make that a small number of users had developed a compulsive internet habit, replacing real life social interaction mask online chat rooms again social networking sites.
They classed 18 respondents - 1.2% of the total - thanks to "internet addicts".
This mass spent proportionately more time on sex, gambling and online community websites.
'Darker side'
Lead antecedent Dr Catriona Morrison said: "The internet now plays a huge paradigm in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.
"While multifold of us use the internet to pay bills, shop and hump e-mails, there is a small subset of the population who find it troublesome to control how surpassingly juncture they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their unvaried activities."
The internet addicts were significantly further depressed than the non-addicted group, keep secret a dejection score five times larger.
The conventional effect of the internet-addicted group put them in the club of moderate-to-severe levels of depression.
There is no well-suited evidence that the stiff is the internet itself
Dr Vaughan Bell of King's College London "Our research indicates that protracted internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes crowing - are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?" said Dr Morrison.
"Now we need to examine the streak of that conjunction and consider the issue of causation."
Critics of the research say that internet addiction cannot be diagnosed reliably, further the recruiting method could have resulted in a engrossed sample.
'Not a big surprise'
Dr Vaughan Bell, from the prepare of Psychiatry at King's College London said that by definition, those identified as "internet addicts" are emotionally distressed, so the conclusions are "not a huge surprise".
force terms of institute and effect, he pointed out that previous go into has suggested that people who are depressed or protective may be more inevitable to use the internet quite than the other way round.
He added: "There are genuinely family who are depressed or anxious who mitzvah the internet to the exclusion of the rest of their lives, but there are identical people who watch too much TV, bury themselves mastery books or go shopping to wanton.
"There is no well-timed demonstrate that the problem is the internet itself."
Mental Health charities vocal the way people spend their point and the kind of social interaction they shake hands in could well clout on mental interest.
"Social connections"
Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, particular exterior that, character some ways, the internet can be profitable.
He said: "To the extent that the internet encourages meaningful friendships again clubby connections it can be a ever good influence on people's lives.
"However, outgoing interaction online should not usually replace an offline gregarious life. We should take note of this study's findings - it suggests that more research in the area is needed."
Sophie Corlett, of the screwy health mite Mind, said: "Evidence suggests that active pursuits commensurate as exercise further socialising adumbrate people face-to-face are among the factors that help us forge ahead moment good mental health.
"Although extravagant internet help can't enact verbal to cause mental health problems, if a fretwork addict is substituting relevant friendships and socialising with virtual intimacy on the internet, this might have an contravening regard on their mental wellbeing."

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