Depression in Adolescents May Be Triggered by Excessive Internet Use, Study Says

Depression in teens could be triggered by too much Internet use, according to a recent study. (Photos.com)

Depression in teenagers could be caused by pathological Internet use, hints a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The study followed 1,000 high school students from Guangzhou in southern China. The study discovered, through self-reported questionnaires that asked about the teenagers’ mental statuses and internet usage, that those with “unhealthy” Internet use were more than twice as likely to develop depression symptoms.

Around six percent of the students surveyed were considered to have “moderate” pathological internet use, and two percent were deemed to exhibit “severe” pathological internet use, the study found.

“Results suggested that young people who are initially free of mental health problems but use the Internet pathologically could develop depression as a consequence,” wrote co-authors of the report Lawrence T. Lam, of the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Zi-Wen Peng, from the Ministry of Education and SunYat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China.

“These results have direct implications for the prevention of mental illness in young people, particularly in developing countries,” they added.