By 3 News online staff
A new study claims that internet addiction is a real phenomenon, causing measurable changes to the brain similar to those experienced by people with drug addictions and compulsion disorders.
Published in the journal PloS ONE, the Chinese study used an empirical MRI technique to investigate the brains of a group of 17 adolescents suffering from internet addiction disorder (IAD) and an age-matched control group.
The researchers found significant structural differences in the brains of participants, which are believed to be caused by IAD.
"The results demonstrate that IAD is characterised by impairment of white matter fibres connecting brain regions involved emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control," the researchers found.
"The findings also suggest that IAD may share psychological and neural mechanisms with other types of impulse control disorders and substance addiction."
The study has met with cautious approval from scientists worldwide, with reservations over the specificity of the disorder.
"Overall this is not a bad piece of work," says Prof Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
"The limitations are that the study is not controlled, and it's possible that illicit drugs, alcohol or other caffeine-based stimulants might account for the changes.
"The specificity of the disorder IAD is also questionable. However, the authors highlight these limitations and there are not many publications on this topic, so they score for originality."
Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, consultant psychiatrist and honorary senior lecturer at the Imperial College London said: "This type of research exploring the differences between normal brains and brains of people who suffer from internet addictions is groundbreaking as it makes clear neuro-imaging links between internet addiction and other addictions such as alcohol, cocaine and cannabis amongst others.
"We are finally been told what clinicians suspected for some time now, that white matter abnormalities in the orbito-frontal cortex and other truly significant brain areas are present not only in addictions where substances are involved but also in behavioural ones such as internet addiction."
She says the research could help direct future psychological treatment for IAD.
3 News