Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have
taken a step toward resolving the debate over whether compulsive use of the
Internet merits a medical diagnosis, but opens many questions along the way. In
a telephone-based study, the researchers found that more than one out of eight
Americans exhibited at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use. The
findings follow results from previous, less rigorous studies that found a
significant number of the population could be suffering from some form of
Internet addiction.
“Our telephone survey suggests that potential markers of
problematic Internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,”
the researchers noted in their paper, which appears in the October issue of CNS
Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine.
“We often focus on how wonderful the Internet is—how simple
and efficient it can make things,” elaborated lead author Elias Aboujaoude, MD.
“But we need to consider the fact that it creates real problems for a subset of
people.”
Aboujaoude, clinical assistant professor in psychiatry and
behavioral sciences and director of Stanford’s Impulse Control Disorders
Clinic, said that a small but growing number of Internet users are starting to
visit their doctors for help with unhealthy attachments to cyberspace. He said
these patients’ strong drive to compulsively use the Internet to check e-mail,
make blog entries or visit Web sites or chat rooms, is not unlike what
sufferers of substance abuse or impulse-control disorders experience: a
repetitive, intrusive and irresistible urge to perform an act that may be
pleasurable in the moment but that can lead to significant problems on the
personal and professional levels.
According to preliminary research, the typical affected
individual is a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends
approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use. While some may
hear this profile and assume that a person’s Internet “addiction” might
actually be an extreme fondness for pornography, Aboujaoude stressed that
pornography sites are just one part of the problem.
“Not surprisingly, online pornography and, to some degree,
online gambling, have received the most attention—but users are as likely to
use other sites, including chat rooms, shopping venues and special-interest Web
sites,” he said. “Our survey did not track what specific Internet venues were
the most frequented by respondents, but other studies, and our clinical
experience, indicate that pornography is just one area of excessive Internet
use.”
The researchers conducted a nationwide household survey and
interviewed 2,513 adults. Because no generally accepted screening instrument
exists for problematic Internet use, the researchers developed their questions
by extrapolating from other compulsive and addictive conditions.
The researchers found that 68.9 percent were regular
Internet users, which is consistent with previous studies, and that:
- 13.7 percent (more than one out of eight respondents) found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time
- 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often
- 12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point
- 8.7 percent attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers
- 8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood
- 5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use
Aboujaoude said he found most concerning the numbers of
people who hid their nonessential Internet use or used the Internet to escape a
negative mood, much in the same way that alcoholics might. “In a sense, they’re
using the Internet to ‘self-medicate,’” he said. “And obviously something is
wrong when people go out of their way to hide their Internet activity.”
While the numbers indicate that a subset of people might
have a problem with Internet use, Aboujaoude stressed that it’s premature to
say whether people in the sample actually have a clinical disorder. “We’re not
saying this is a diagnosis—we still need to learn a lot more,” he said. “But
this study was a necessary first step toward possibly identifying something
clinically significant.”
Aboujaoude said the next step is to conduct comprehensive
clinical interviews on a large sample of people to better identify clinically
relevant markers for problematic Internet use, and to better understand whether
this phenomenon constitutes an independent psychological disorder.
Aboujaoude’s Stanford co-authors on this study are Lorrin
Koran, MD, emeritus professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Nona
Gamel, a licensed clinical social worker.