Depression in youths

A study shows that spending too much time on the internet is tied to depression

Researchers found that rates of severe depression among “pathological” internet users were 2.5 times more than those of others. File Photo: S. Rambabu

A large Chinese study suggests that otherwise healthy teenagers are much more vulnerable to depression if they spend too much time on the Internet. Researchers who followed more than 1,000 students at high schools in Guangzhou — all of them free of anxiety and depression at the start of the study — found that after nine months, rates of severe depression among “pathological” users were 2.5 times those of the others.

The study was published August 2 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine . It used self-rating scales to assess anxiety and depression, along with an addiction test.

Of the 1,041 subjects, 94 per cent were classified as normal Internet users and 6 per cent as moderately pathological or at severe risk for addiction. After nine months, 87 students, or 8.4 pe rcent, developed mild to severe depression.