US internet addicts 'as ill as alcoholics'/Porn panic over eroto-toxins

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US internet addicts 'as ill as alcoholics'

 

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10322-us-internet-addicts-as-ill-as-alcoholics.html

12:55 18 October 2006

 

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Hooked: Why your brain is primed for addiction 26 August 2006 Porn panic over eroto-toxins 27 November 2004 Cyberchondriacs 25 March 2000

 

 

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The US could be rife with "internet addicts" who are as clinically ill as alcoholics, according to psychiatrists involved in a nationwide study.

The study, carried out by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, US, indicates that more than one in eight US residents show signs of "problematic internet use".

The Stanford researchers interviewed 2513 adults in a nationwide survey. Because internet addiction is not a clinically defined medical condition, the questions used were based on analysis of other addiction disorders.

Most disturbing, according to the study's lead author Elias Aboujaoude, is the discovery that some people hide their internet surfing, or go online to cure foul moods – behaviour that mirrors the way alcoholics behave.

"In a sense, they're using the internet to self-medicate," Aboujaoude says. "And, obviously, something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their internet activity."

Non-essential use

Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected.

More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to going online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage.

"Potential markers of problematic internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population," the researchers note.

Compulsive drive

Aboujaoude, a psychiatry professor at Stanford's Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, says an increasing number of people are seeking help from doctors because of unhealthy internet use.

He compares the compulsive drive to check email, make blog entries or visit websites to substance abuse – an irresistible urge to perform a temporarily pleasurable act.

"The issue is starting to be recognised as a legitimate object of clinical attention, as well as an economic problem, given that a great deal of non-essential internet use takes place at work," Aboujaoude says.

He adds that the problem is not confined to specific types of internet use. "Online pornography and, to some degree, online gambling, have received the most attention," he says, "but users are as likely to use other sites, including chat rooms, shopping venues and special-interest websites."

Previous research suggests that the majority of "internet addicts" are single, college-educated, white males in their 30s, who spend approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use.

Journal reference: CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine (October issue)

 

 

Porn panic over eroto-toxins

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg18424750.800

 

Pornography, the US Senate was told on 18 October, is a drug more dangerous than crack cocaine. That, at least, was the opinion of some witnesses invited to testify on "the science behind pornography addiction". It's not a view shared by everyone.

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the sexual trauma and psychopathology programme at the University of Pennsylvania, said unpublished research showed that "even non-sex-addicts will show brain reactions on PET scans while viewing pornography similar to cocaine addicts looking at images of people taking cocaine". Jeffrey Satinover, a doctor whose website outlines therapies for homosexuals, described porn as a designer drug, delivered efficiently over the internet, which "does what heroin can't do". A third expert witness said there was an urgent need for research on addiction to "eroto-toxins".

Porn, like sex, can trigger the release of natural opioids, which have a feel-good effect. But Joe Herbert, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge and former president of the International Academy of Sex Research, takes issue with the use of the label "eroto-toxins" and the implication that these chemicals are somehow harmful. "What evidence is there for that?" he asks. "This is saying sex is naughty and you shouldn't do it." The brain lights up in response to the sight of any reward. To conclude that this means porn can be compared to hard drugs is "complete rubbish", he says.

From issue 2475 of New Scientist magazine, 27 November 2004, page 5

 

Cyberchondriacs

25 March 2000

Magazine issue 2231

 

Everybody is terribly health conscious these days. Put this together with an ever-increasing addiction to the Internet, and it's no surprise that many people are becoming cyberchondriacs. Family doctors are bracing themselves for an epidemic of "IPO"—Internet Print Out fever. IPO sufferers search out information on their aches and pains, print out details of their alleged ailments and hand over reams of laser-printed Web pages to their befuddled doctors to "prove" what is wrong with them. It can only get worse. New websites pop up all the time promising sound, expert advice on all things medical. But how do you know that this advice is not biased? Manufacturers of drugs and health products have deep pockets—and pay to advertise on several of the sites which have come to rely on their funding.

The creators of US-based www.WebMD.com insist that they maintain editorial independence by making all editorial staff work separately