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Internet Addiction is Real - Not A Figment of the Imagination!
People who claim that they are addicted to the internet and feel that it's an important part of their wellbeing now have some solid science to back up this assertion. A research team have discovered that internet addiction is caused by a mutation in a particular gene, specifically CHRNA4. "It was shown that Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination," says lead author of the study, Privatdozent Dr. Christian Montag from the Department for Differential and Biological Psychology at the University of Bonn, Germany. "Researchers and therapists are increasingly closing in on it."
The mutation occurs with a higher frequency in people with the condition and it's actually more prevalent in women. However, this finding will have to be validated further, because numerous surveys have found that men are more prone to Internet addiction than women. The hope is that with complete, or at least a fuller understanding of the causes of internet addiction, effective treatments can be developed for sufferers.
So, doctor's sick notes authorising time off work and citing "internet addiction" as the cause are going to be issued in the future? That should go down well with an employer. Just stay off the internet while you recover...
Full details of the research are available at the link below.
Over the past years, the Bonn researchers have interviewed a total of 843 people about their Internet habits. An analysis of the questionnaires shows that 132 men and women in this group exhibit problematic behavior in how they handle the online medium; all their thoughts revolve around the Internet during the day, and they feel their wellbeing is severely impacted if they have to go without it.
Posted by | Thu, Aug 30, 2012 - 01:17 PM
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