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Experts warned that the Internet could fuel new conditions such as cyberchondria and cyber attacks.
Although researchers say that most Internet uses are benign, this can cause some people to develop problems. Experts are now asking for more research to understand the range of existing problems, who might be at risk, and how to help individuals.
A new collaboration called the European Research Network on Problematic Use of the Internet will examine these health problems and other Internet-related health problems, such as gambling, pornography and gambling.
Cyber attacks – reluctance to remove information collected online – and cyberchondria – are among the problems they wish to explore by compulsively using search engines and websites in the hope of ensuring that medical fears are not reassuring, then self-diagnose new ailments.
"What [hypochondriacs] We used to look for encyclopedias and medical dictionaries, etc., looking for signs and symptoms that they thought were serious, "said Professor Naomi Fineberg, a psychiatrist at the University of Hertfordshire. "Of course, with the evolution of online resources, people are now looking on the Internet for signs and symptoms potentially indicative of a serious illness."
The problem, she said, is probably under-recognized. "I think it's more common than we realize," she said. "I have seen it many times in my clinic."
Cybercrime, she added, is another problem that researchers plan to explore further. "Again, no one knows how much this is developing and causes problems," she said.
Fineberg said that at present, it is unclear if these problems are only "digital versions" of the analog conditions. But, she said, the question deserves to be examined.
"Either it would enrich the diagnosis of these other disorders like hypochondria or it might even, according to our findings, constitute an argument for creating even more new diagnoses," Fineberg said.
In the journal European Neuropsychopharmacy, Fineberg – who chairs the network – and his colleagues presented a manifesto for the research, pointing out that there was still a lot to be done to solve the problems associated with the problematic use of. Internet, ranging from defining different conditions to understanding that it's about addiction issues or addiction issues. for example, are more related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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It is also not known whether problems are short-term or chronic, while scales are needed to help researchers assess the severity of an individual's condition – and if it worsens or worsens with different treatments.
"What interests us is to begin to understand and perhaps identify who is vulnerable. Perhaps we could do something to try to address this vulnerability and mitigate this vulnerability, and perhaps identify treatment options for this group sooner rather than later, "said Dr. Valerie Voon, from the University of Cambridge.
The team proposed, among other possibilities, to look for ways to report potentially at-risk individuals.
"We are very interested in the concept of biomarkers, including digital biomarkers. In other words, the Internet access model can allow us to determine whether you are going to become vulnerable or not, "said Fineberg, although she currently admits that it's not going to make her vulnerable. Only acts from a theoretical idea. One of the possibilities that she suggested was that sites could post when you spent several hours on it.
Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones, spokeswoman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists on Behavioral Dependencies, said that it was important not to demonize activities like gambling, which the World Health Organization has recently classified as a mental health problem. "It's not an epidemic, as some people are worried about," she said.
But for those who develop a problem, she said that the impact on finances, education, social life and relationships can be devastating – especially for children, who can become "extremely pathological very quickly "after a serious event of life such as the separation of parents. "But normally, we would like to behave for a while before we take it seriously and decide to intervene," she said.
Professor Zsolt Demetrovics of Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, co-author of the new manifesto, stressed that spending long periods on the Internet or using it to adopt previously offline behaviors n & # 39, was not necessarily prejudicial.
"Availability itself is not a problem … someone will not be a problematic internet user or addict for pornography simply because it's no longer available." Internet can also bring benefits, he added: "All these devices also mean that the possibility of help is also more available."
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