Teenagers Stuck on Phones Risk of "Modest" Increase in ADHD Symptoms – Study

Three teenagers walk with their smartphones outside the Washington Natural History Museum on April 8, 2015. A Pew Research Center poll reveals that 92% of American teenagers connect daily. The survey of teenagers aged 13 to 17 found that 73% of them had a smart phone and 30% had at least one basic cell phone. AFP

TAMPA, USA – Adolescents may suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder after excessive use of smartphone

A new study released Tuesday indicates that digital overload could be Linked to a "modest" but significant increase in ADHD behavior, offering a warning to parents about the potential dangers of too much screen time.

The results of the Journal of the American Medical Association were based on nearly 2,600 teenagers in Los Angeles who responded to survey questions over a two-year period. The more social media, streaming videos, text messaging, music downloads, or online chats that they interact with, the more likely they were to report symptoms such as difficulty organizing and completing

10 percent of youth who reported using digital media platforms commonly have often shown new symptoms of ADHD during the Iod study, the report said.

In contrast, 4.6% of students who were not frequent users of any digital activity showed symptoms of ADHD.

The researchers warned that the increase in symptoms of ADHD was "modest" and at least some of the effect could be further, since the study was observational in nature and that 39; it was based on the survey responses of the teens themselves, the researchers said that they could not prove that the use of smart phones actually caused ADHD symptoms.

for more research because "it was a statistically significant association," said Adam Leventhal, professor of preventive medicine and psychology at the University of Southern California.

"We can confidently say that adolescents who were exposed to higher levels of digital media were significantly more likely to develop ADHD symptoms in the future."

Previous studies have shown that ADHD is a persistent psychiatric condition. Attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity affect about seven percent of young people in the United States and may be on the rise in some populations.

Previous studies examining the effects of television and video games have revealed a modest increase in ADHD in children. 19659003] According to Jessica Agnew-Blais, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King & # 39; s College London, the authors were "justifiably careful not to over-interpret" their results.

Frequency of ADHD symptoms, so it remains to be seen whether relatively small changes in the frequency of ADHD symptoms during these two years are disruptive or "It should be noted that more than 80 % of students reported using high frequency digital media, and the vast majority of these students do not have high symptoms of ADHD. "

Andy Przybylski, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute of Oxford University, described the research as "interesting" but "tentative."

"The study is a proof of concept that says we need very large samples when we design future studies because the possible effects are extremely small."

Future studies on the subject should be Distance self-reported responses and include clinical diagnoses and external measurements of the device. use, experts have suggested. / cbb

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