Category Archives: Psycological Health

Ketamine for Depression: The Most Important Advance in Field in 50 Years?

Ketamine for Depression: The Most Important Advance in Field in 50 Years?

2012-10-09

In a new review in Science, the authors call the identification of the anesthetic and “club drug” ketamine as a rapid treatment for depression “arguably the most important discovery in half a century” of research on the condition
By Maia Szalavitz

In any given year, 7% of adults suffer from major depression, and at least 1 in 10 youth will reckon with the disorder at some point during their teenage years. But about 20% of these cases will not respond to current treatments; for those that do, relief may take weeks to months to come.

There is one treatment, however, that works much faster: the anesthetic and “club drug” ketamine. It takes effect within hours. A single dose of ketamine produces relief of depression that has been shown in studies to last for up to 10 days; it also appears to reduce symptoms of bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts. Now, a new research review published in Science calls the discovery of these effects of ketamine, “”arguably the most important discovery in half a century” of depression research.

Ketamine doesn’t work the way traditional antidepressants do. Many such drugs affect levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, and while the idea that depression is caused by low levels of serotonin or an “imbalance” of other key neurotransmitters has been firmly fixed in the popular imagination, scientists have known for decades that it can’t be that simple. For one, antidepressant drugs change the brain’s neurotransmitter levels immediately, yet depression doesn’t lift for several weeks, a delay that could be potentially deadly.

Another theory is that depression is caused not by neurotransmitter problems per se, but by damage to brain cells themselves in key regions critical to controlling mood. This idea fits nicely with evidence that stress can cause depression, since high levels of stress hormones can cause an overrelease of a neurotransmitter called glutamate, which damages cells and affects exactly the same suspected areas. More support for this theory comes from the fact that all known antidepressants increase cell growth in these areas too, providing an alternate explanation for their therapeutic results.

At first, ketamine seemed to throw a monkey wrench into that neat idea, however. It didn’t seem likely that a drug could repair cells within hours, but new research explored in a review paper in the journal Science suggests just that. Ketamine rapidly spurs the growth of new synapses, the connections between brain cells, and is associated with “reversal of the atrophy caused by chronic stress,” the authors write.

Unfortunately, the hallucinogenic and often outright unpleasant effects of ketamine mean that it can’t be used in the same way typical antidepressants are, and fears about its potential for misuse also hamper its development. Researchers are frantically trying to develop compounds that have the same effects as ketamine without producing a “high.”

In the meanwhile, however, ketamine is already FDA approved, so there’s nothing stopping psychiatrists from trying it and patients from asking for access to it in emergency situations when all else has failed. However, it must be given by infusion and carefully monitored (nasal sprays are being developed and there is an oral form that has some effects, but is not optimally absorbed), and the drug impairs patients for hours. Still, it relieves depression for at least several days: if there’s a choice between being entirely dysfunctional seven days a week or only out of commission for one or two, many people would accept that trade-off.

But while research on ketamine is ongoing, clinical use of the drug in the community remains rare. Fears about abuse continue to run high, though ketamine has never caught on as a major street drug. If the Science paper’s authors are right that ketamine’s effect on depression is a key advance — and if the drug really holds similar promise for bipolar disorder — patients might want to consider pushing for greater access. Ketamine is off patent, so no drug maker is likely to do so.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

Sex or money: What makes you happier?

Sex or money: What makes you happier?

2012-10-04

Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor and New York Times best-selling author, blogs about sex for CNN Health. Read more from him on his website, GoodInBed.

If you’re thinking that the benefits of a hefty bank account could help turn up the heat in the bedroom, you’re at least partly right.

Money might not buy love, but it can allow for a sizzling sex life.

About 70% of multimillionaires — with a mean net worth of a whopping $90 million — say they enjoy better and more adventurous sex, according to a 2007 survey by Prince & Associates Inc., a marketing research firm specializing in global private wealth.

“Fully 63% of rich men said wealth gave them ‘better sex,’ which they defined as having more-frequent sex with more partners. That compares to 88% of women who said more money gave them better sex, which they defined as ‘higher quality’ sex,” writes Robert Frank in an article for the Wealth Report entitled “The Rich Libido.”

It makes sense when you think about it: Money relieves much of the life stresses that most of us have to deal with, helping those 1%ers relax and let go.

The security of extreme wealth can provide a sense of stability that many people, particularly female millionaires, find empowering. And expensive toys like private jets and trips to exotic locales certainly don’t hurt, either.

Hooking up with the rich may even improve the quality of sex, at least for women. In a 2009 study (PDF), researchers at Newcastle University found that as male partners’ income increased, so did the frequency of women’s orgasms.

Political differences and the bedroom

Could money act as an aphrodisiac? Maybe. Or, as the study’s authors suggest, perhaps wealth-inspired orgasms are the result of evolution, helping women discriminate between men to find those that have the best provider potential.

However, a partner who can provide more resources and more orgasms may not necessarily be the best long-term bet, because wealth changes people, and not always for the better.

According to social psychologist Justin Lehmiller, “Wealthier people engage in more dishonest and unethical behavior, and these traits may follow them into the bedroom. In fact, research has found that power and wealth are linked to a higher likelihood of infidelity.”

But luckily for all of 99%ers, sex itself may confer more happiness than money ever could.

In one study, researchers at Dartmouth College and the University of Warwick, England, measured levels of happiness in 16,000 men and women. They found that the more sex people had, the happier they were, regardless of their age or whether they were male or female.

And while money was found to buy more sexual partners, it didn’t necessarily buy more sex. In fact, men who paid for sex were considerably less happy than those who didn’t, which makes sense.

According to Lehmiller, “You can buy all of the sex you want, but at the end of the day, most of us want and need more than a few moments of physical contact. Purchasing sex does not meet our psychological needs for intimacy and emotional connection.”

Beyond ‘Fifty Shades’: Sex experts share their favorite books

The researchers even found that sex is so closely tied to happiness that they estimated increasing sexual intercourse from once a month to once a week would have the same mood-boosting effects as adding $50,000 a year in income.

Sex may contribute to your happiness — and your actual bank account — in other ways, too. According to research by biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher, people who have more sex might do better at work.

Sex triggers the release of various brain chemicals, such as dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin, which are associated with creativity, problem-solving, cooperation and confidence. It stands to reason, says Fisher, that regular sex might improve performance in the boardroom as well as the bedroom.

So how can you reap these rewards? Invest in your relationship by giving it the same time and attention that you would your retirement portfolio. Make time for date nights. Make sure that the number of positive interactions with your partner outnumbers the negatives.

Practice 30-second hugs to get those feel-good chemicals flowing. Share a cuddle — and maybe a fantasy or two. Remember, you may not own six homes and a private jet, but when you bank on your relationship, you can feel just as rich.

So what makes you happier: sex or money?

Crank up your sex drive

Fighting loneliness and disease with meditation

Fighting loneliness and disease with meditation

2012-08-27

Editor’s note: CNN contributor Amanda Enayati ponders the theme of seeking serenity: the quest for well-being and life balance in stressful times.

(CNN) — Anyone who sees meditation as a hippy-dippy endeavor has found his or her view increasingly challenged by science in recent years.

Meditation and other contemplative practices are continuing to claim their place at the table of mainstream medicine.

This is true for a slew of reasons: chief among them, the recognition that hordes of us are stressed out, that stress wreaks havoc upon our bodies and that the practice of meditation has significant and measurable stress-reduction properties.

In a recent study led by J. David Creswell, assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, mindfulness-based meditation continues to reveal itself as a therapeutic powerhouse, with far-reaching influence on both psychological and physical health.

Continue reading Fighting loneliness and disease with meditation

Stressed-out men find heavier women attractive

Stressed-out men find heavier women attractive

2012-08-15

Feel free to indulge in that brownie, ladies – especially if the man you’ve got your eye on is worried about a work project. A study published this week in the journal PLOS ONE shows men who are psychologically stressed find heavier women attractive.

The study

Eighty-one heterosexual, white men, aged 18 to 42, were put into two groups. The first group took the Trier Social Stress Test, which increased stress levels by asking participants to take on the role of a job applicant in front of a hiring committee. The second group was sent to a room to wait quietly.

Both groups were then shown images of women with various body mass indexes. Study participants evaluated the women’s attractiveness on a scale of 1 (very unattractive) to 9 (very attractive). They were then asked to select the woman they found most attractive, the largest woman they found attractive and the smallest woman they found attractive.

The results

While both groups rated underweight women the same, the men with more stress gave significantly higher ratings to women in the normal and high BMI categories than their calmer counterparts. The stressed group’s picks for the largest woman they found attractive was also much heavier, on average, than the control group’s picks.

The take-away

Not much, if we’re being honest. Scientists have long known that a society’s ideal body size is shaped by their access to resources. Larger women are preferred when there is a threat, like limited food, because their bodies signify the ability to survive in hostile environments. In today’s world, that threat can be as simple as the possibility of unemployment.

Even hunger has an impact on the male mind – previous studies have shown that hungry men find heavier women attractive, according to the study. (Yet another reason to keep the chocolate in your hands!)

iReporters: What beauty means to me
Post by: Jacque Wilson — CNN.com Health writer/producer

The Perfect Playlist: How Your iPod Can Help You Run Faster and Harder

The Perfect Playlist: How Your iPod Can Help You Run Faster and Harder

2012-08-07

Sometimes you need an extra push to hit the pavement or treadmill — or to make it through that last grueling mile of training — and the key may simply be loading right songs on your iPod, according to Dr. Coastas Karageorghis, author of Inside Sport Psychology and a leading expert on the psychophysical and ergogenic effects of music at Brunel University, in London.

Music has specific motivational qualities that can make you work harder and faster, even when you feel spent. “Music has the propensity to elevate positive aspects of mood such as vigor and excitement, and reduces negative aspects such as tension and fatigue,” says Karageorghis, who has created custom workout soundtracks for several U.S. athletes competing in the London Olympics. ”It reduces perceived effort, and training to a musical beat can enhance endurance.”

Whether you’re a casual runner or training for a distance event (if the latter, first check out our tips on training from last week), the right playlist can optimize your performance. Here are Karageorghis’ guidelines for putting together a runner’s mix that will get you across the finish line:

(MORE: It’s Not Too Late to Start: Tips for Training for a Distance Run)

Select tracks with energizing beats
Synchronizing your strides with an upbeat song can subconsciously increase your effort during a workout. In a 2009 study, Karageorghis and his colleagues found that matching training with music significantly boosted exercise efficiency and endurance. For the study, the researchers compared 30 participants working out on a treadmill — some listened to high-energy rock and pop tunes and some did not. Compared with those who worked out in silence, those who synchronized their pace to the songs’ tempo improved their endurance by 15%.

Jamming to rhythmic songs also lowers your perceived effort, making you think you’re not working as hard as you really are. Upbeat music increases activity in a part of the brain called the ascending reticular activating system, which “psyches” you up when you’re running.

“The optimal tempo range is 120 to 140 beats per minute,” says Karageorghis. “Our research shows this yields the best psychological outcomes.”

By looking up the beats per minute (bpm) of your go-to songs, you can also find the tempo that matches the heart rate you want to achieve during your workout. For example, if you want your heart rate to get to 130 bpm, choose a song whose tempo progressively increases to that beat, Karageorghis says.

(MORE: 50 Olympic Athletes to Watch)

Stick with what you know
A song’s cultural impact is a key factor in what makes it motivational. “There’s a strong relationship between exposure to a song and you liking it,” says Karageorghis. We tend to favor songs the more often we hear them, so pick a song that’s already in your music library.

Adding songs you associate with moments of perseverance, either from movies or your personal life, can also give you an extra edge. The “Chariots of Fire [theme song] has been used extensively at the London Olympic games,” says Karageorghis. “We’ve made an association with this song and characters doing heroic feats. When you hear it, it conjures images and thoughts of overcoming adversity and striving towards a goal. So you’re conditioned to feel stimulated, inspired and motivated.”

One of TIME’s own staffers, photo editor Liz Ronk, who is training for a half-marathon in October, says this strategy has already worked for her: “Sometimes I hear songs that are played at races that I would normally never listen to, and I’ll download them specifically for my runs just because the song will remind me of that energy.”

Don’t forget to hit shuffle
If you’ve had your playlist on repeat for the last two weeks, you may be desensitized to the songs’ motivational qualities. “This is why radio stations promote songs by playing them repeatedly, but then play it less and less, so listeners don’t develop a negative response to it,” says Karageorghis. “Change your playlist at least every couple of weeks so you don’t listen to the same track over and over.”

(MORE: 5 Common Mistakes You’re Making at the Gym)

Try digitally altering your music to boost motivation
To create playlists for professional athletes, including Great Britain‘s track and field captain, Dai Greene, Karageorghis films them working out at different intensities in order to identify tracks from their music libraries that fit their workouts. Then he tweaks the music to get them working ven harder. “Often I digitally adjust tracks to give a little push of one or two beats per minute,” says Karageorghis. “Differences in tempo of up to four beats per minute are indiscernible to non-musicians. You can easily manipulate your favorite tracks slightly. It’s a particularly good ploy if you want to give yourself a little jolt or get out of a training slump.”

Be choosy about lyrics
“Lyrics can be extremely important, particularly if they carry meaning for the athlete,” says Karageorghis. “You will notice a lot of athletes like your own Michael Phelps use music as an integral part of their pre-event routine. He’s famed for his rap-centric playlist. In Beijing, he listened to the song “I’m Me” by Lil’ Wayne which has strong affirming lyrics as well as being acoustically stimulative.”

Find songs with inspiring lyrics that convey what you want to achieve, like “Pump It” by Black Eyed Peas or “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.

(MORE: Do Sports Products Really Enhance Your Workout? Maybe Not)

If you’re still unsure where to start, below are sample playlists from Karageorghis and from our three TIME staffers who are training for half-marathons in October (stay tuned for ongoing updates about the training this summer):

Dr. Coastas Karageorghis:

“Eye Of The Tiger” (109 BPM), Surivior
“Don’t Stop Me Now” (154 BPM), Queen
“Beat It” (139 BPM), Michael Jackson
“I Like To Move It” (123 BPM), Reel 2 Real feat. The Mad Stuntman
“Push It” (130 BPM), Salt-N-Pepa

Bryan Walsh, TIME International Senior Editor and Healthland contributor:

“Available,” The National
“Don’t Save Us From the Flames,” M83
“Ready to Start,” Arcade Fire
“Dog Days Are Over,” Florence+the Machine
“All of the Lights,” Kanye West

Liz Ronk, LIFE.com Photo Editor:

“40 Day Dream,” Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
“Celebration Day,” Led Zeppelin
“Paper Planes ” M.I.A.
“No Regrets,” Aesop Rock
“I Can’t Turn You Loose,” Otis Redding

Liz Grover, TIME Imaging Desk:

“Is Anybody Out There?” K’NAAN feat. Nelly Furtado
“Lights,” Ellie Goulding
“Wide Awake,” Katy Perry
“Domino,” Jesse J
“Payphone,” Maroon 5

Don’t forget to protect your ears when you’re jamming on your workout. “Use music judiciously and don’t use it too loudly,” says Karageorghis. “High-intensity exercises coupled with high-intensity music above about 85 decibels can cause temporary hearing loss,” he warns. Stay alert and stay safe.

Can Telling the Truth Make You Healthier?

Can Telling the Truth Make You Healthier?

Telling a few white lies may seem harmless, but a new study suggests that you might improve your mental and physical health if you cut down on the fibs you tell.

“We found that the participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday lies, and that in turn was associated with significantly improved health,” said Anita Kelly, study author and professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, in a statement. Kelly presented her findings at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Orlando.

For her study, Kelly recruited 110 adults and asked half of them to stop lying for 10 weeks. Lies included big ones and tiny ones — any false statement — but participants were still allowed to do things like omit the truth, keep secrets and dodge questions they didn’t want to answer. The other half of the participants weren’t given any special instructions about lying, except that they had to report the number of lies they told each week. The participants, aged 18 to 71, took a weekly lie detector test and filled out questionnaires about their physical and mental health as well as the quality of their relationships.

(MORE: Is That a Bluff? Looking for Lies in People’s Shifty Eyes)

It turns out that both groups reduced their lying, but those who were specifically told to tell the truth fibbed less — and improved their health more. For example, when participants in the no-lie group told three fewer minor lies a week, they reported four fewer mental-health complaints (such as feeling sad or stressed) and three fewer physical complaints (such as headaches or sore throats). Those in the control group who independently told fewer lies logged fewer health complaints as well, but only by two or three complaints.

On average, Americans tell about 11 lies a week, the authors report. By the end of their 10-week study period, participants in the no-lie group were down to one lie a week. The comparison group was telling more than three lies a week, down from an average of six at the start of the study.

People really took the task to heart, the researchers found: participants found themselves being honest about their daily accomplishments instead of exaggerating them, for example, and they stopped making up excuses for being late or failing to complete a task. They also came up with strategies to avoid lying, such as responding to tough questions with another question in order to distract the other person.

(MORE: Why The Rich Are Less Ethical)

In addition to improving their mental and physical health, the truth-tellers said that their close personal relationships had also improved and that their other social interactions had been easier.

“I think lying can cause a lot of stress for people, contributing to anxiety and even depression,” Dr. Bryan Bruno, acting chairman of the department of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told HealthDay. “Lying less is not only good for your relationships, but for yourself as an individual. People might recognize the more devastating impact lying can have on relationships, but probably don’t recognize the extent to which it can cause a lot of internal stress.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/06/can-telling-the-truth-make-you-healthier/?iid=hl-main-lede#ixzz22pYZJEE2

It’s Called the Graveyard Shift for a Reason

It’s Called the Graveyard Shift for a Reason

2012-07-30

People who work irregular schedules or work outside of normal daytime hours are at higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and other coronary events, according to a new study published this week in the British Medical Journal.

This study is not the first to show a link between shift work and heart health, but it is the largest-ever analysis of its kind. It pools together results from 34 previous studies on the topic, with a combined 2 million study participants from across the industrialized world, estimating that shift workers are at 23% greater risk of heart attacks than the other workers, 5% greater risk of ischemic stroke, and 24% greater risk of all coronary events combined (a category that includes heart attack but not stroke). Shift workers also had slightly higher overall death rates than average, but those results were not statistically significant.

Continue reading It’s Called the Graveyard Shift for a Reason

Yoga Can Help Stroke Survivors Regain Their Balance

Yoga Can Help Stroke Survivors Regain Their Balance

You don’t have to be a devoted yogi to reap the benefits of the cobra pose. A new study in chronic stroke survivors shows that practicing yoga can improve balance in patients, giving them more confidence to handle day-to-day activities and potentially reducing disability.

The study, published in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke, involved 47 stroke survivors, mostly male veterans, who had had their stroke six months prior. The participants were still experiencing balance problems, which can be long-lasting after stroke, arising from injury to central brain structures and impaired senses. Difficulties with balance can lead to a higher risk of falls, further injury and continued disability.

Continue reading Yoga Can Help Stroke Survivors Regain Their Balance

Early Marriages- a threat rather than child protection

Early Marriages- a threat rather than child protection

2012-07-17

According to a study using data from 40 Demographic and Health Surveys, early marriages are most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In Pakistan, the practice of early marriage or child marriage has been significant and has now taken shape of customary practices including that of ‘selling girls’ into marriage i.e. exchange marriages, whereby disputes are settled by exchange of the girls of the family. Even though both the sexes may be suffering from forced marriage in many cases, it is usually the girl who suffers the most.

The reason for this is that early marriage typically results in childbearing at a very young age. This poses great health risks for the girl and not being prepared for such a great responsibility so early in her life, she might go through immense psychological pressure. Although there are many repercussions of early marriage, this article particularly deals with the negative effects it has on the reproductive health of the girl.

These girls are faced with repeated pregnancies and unplanned babies, which results in a high number of abortions taking place. The impact of one abortion on the young girl is so traumatizing that she would rather choose not to have another baby. And to add to all of this, the inaccessibility to maternal and child health services and the issue of poverty in case the girl belongs to a poor family worsens things more for her! Most of the girls belonging to the rural areas are not even aware of contraception so they opt for abortions as the only resort, and when post-abortion complications arise they lack the awareness about the post-abortion care services that they can approach and avail. This sad situation results in numerous maternal deaths and poor health status among women.

In the case of early marriages, girls are not even mature enough to fight for their own rights or to speak for themselves-they feel that their husbands own them and if he wants more children then she has to bear them! However, even the Holy Quran tells us that nothing is more important than the woman’s health. If her health does not allow her to keep giving babies then it is simply not right for her to keep suffering. Some parents feel that if they get their child married at an early age they are protecting them. However, the fact is that this results in lost development opportunities, hinders personal growth and increases the chances of poor health and limits life options.

Restricted mobility of these girls, lack of intimacy with their husbands and lack of resources for counseling causes these young girls many internal problems. Motherhood is viewed by them as their sole purpose in life and they seem to have no life of their own. With her childhood already limited due to early marriage, she is burdened with the responsibility of handling a man whom she doesn’t even know that well and pregnancies that she is unable to handle. She has lost the joy of celebrating marriage which is the dream of every young girl-and all at the expense of her health!

It is high time that we realize the detrimental effects of early marriage on the girls in our society, and try to do our part in spreading awareness about the maternal and child health services, the sexual and reproductive counseling that we can make available to them and save their lives…we need to work towards eradication of the process of wasting productive lives in order for Pakistan to benefit from each individual born on its land-an asset we must save!

The author of the above blog is an ungrad student from Institute Of Business Administration, Karachi
Maham Sundus

Does the Internet Really Make Everyone Crazy?

Does the Internet Really Make Everyone Crazy?

2012-07-16

Sociologists call them moral panics — when a population pins its unanchored fear in uncertain times on a selected demon, whether or not the target is really a threat to society. Drugs are a frequent focus of these societal anxiety attacks, but this week, Newsweek tries to foment a classic panic against a more universal foe: the Internet.

Headlined online “Is the Web Driving Us Mad?” the article begins with the story of Jason Russell, the filmmaker behind the “Kony2012″ video about the African cult-leader and warlord Joseph Kony. After the video went viral and suddenly brought Russell international fame, he wound up naked and ranting on a San Diego street corner. To make the case that the Internet caused Russell’s psychotic break, the Newsweek article rapidly generalizes from rare, extreme experiences like Russell’s and wends through a selective reading of the research to argue, in the words of one quoted source, that the Net, “encourages — and even promotes — insanity.”

(MORE: The Internet Knows You’re Depressed, but Can It Help You?)

According to senior writer Tony Dokoupil:

The first good, peer-reviewed research is emerging, and the picture is much gloomier than the trumpet blasts of Web utopians have allowed. The current incarnation of the Internet—portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive—may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways.

The problem is, this conclusion runs counter to what the research data actually show.

Dokoupil makes much of brain scan studies suggesting that Internet use “rewires” the brain in ways that look similar to changes seen in drug addiction. The reality is that any enjoyable activity leads to changes in the brain’s pleasure regions if a person engages in it frequently enough. Indeed, any activity we perform repeatedly will lead to brain changes: that’s known as learning. Riding a bicycle and playing the violin also rewire the brain, but we don’t choose to refer to these changes as “damage.”

As yet, there is no brain scan that can clearly determine whether certain brain changes signify addiction or simple, harmless enjoyment. Nor can brain scans predict, in the case of addiction, who will be able to regain control over their behavior and who will not.

(MORE: Hooked on Addiction: From Food to Drugs to Internet Porn)

Dokoupil cites a study that scanned 24 people, some experienced Web users and some who were less proficient. He says that the regular users had “fundamentally altered prefrontal cortexes,” but he fails to mention that the research only explored people’s Google use — comparing Google aficionados to newbies. He writes further that just five hours of time spent online (using Google) “rewired” the brains of the new users. This, of course, tells us nothing about addiction: we don’t know if the experienced Google searchers were even having trouble controlling their Internet use, or whether, based on one small study, a tiny bit of experience learning how to search the Web can “rewire” the brain dramatically. If so, then everyone’s addicted — or no one is, and the brain changes are meaningless.

Dokoupil acknowledges that the research linking Web and smartphone use to psychiatric problems cannot show clear cause and effect, but he brushes off this important caveat with quotes from experts who conduct this research and use it to confirm their own clinical observations — in other words, anecdotes, which are an even sketchier source of data — and make causal claims.

In truth, the research linking Internet use to addiction, depression or other behavioral and psychiatric problems simply cannot determine whether being online causes these ills or whether people who are already prone to such problems tend to go online more. In fact, there’s better evidence (not mentioned in the article) that the Internet can be used to treat anxiety and depression than there is suggesting it causes these problems. Randomized controlled trials of online therapy for depression have found it to be as effective as traditional therapy — and only randomized controlled trials, not the observational data cited by Newsweek, can scientifically demonstrate cause and effect.

(MORE: Study: Playing a Video Game Helps Teens Beat Depression)

Dokoupil also approvingly cites an expert who has become a target of widespread ridicule in the science blogosphere for her extreme claims about Internet-related brain damage. Baroness Susan Greenfield, a pharmacology professor at Oxford, told Dokoupil in her typically understated way that the Internet problem “is an issue as important and unprecedented as climate change.”

Greenfield has never published a study on Internet use. The logic behind her claims is often befuddling: for example, this is how she attempted to explain why she believes the Internet has something to do with the recent rise in autism, in a 2011 interview with the Guardian: “I point to the increase in autism and I point to Internet use. That’s all.” Obviously, that is not scientific reasoning, which is why her comments inspired an Internet meme (among other outrage and disdain) that trended on Twitter.

Dr. Ben Goldacre, a leading British science journalist and author of the “Bad Science” blog, sums up the criticisms of Greenfield this way: “[Her ideas] are never set out as a clear hypothesis, in a formal academic publication, with the accompanying evidence and a clear suggestion of what research programmes might be planned to clarify any uncertainties.”

The Newsweek feature also highlights stories from China, Taiwan and Korea, where Internet addiction has been accepted as a genuine psychiatric problem and treatment centers have been set up to deal with it. “Tens of millions of people (and as much as 30 percent of teens) are considered Internet-addicted” in these countries, Dokoupil writes.

Those facts, however, don’t necessarily mean that Internet addiction exists, let alone that it is widespread. Simply naming a disease and treating it doesn’t make it real, no more than the existence of witch hunts proves the existence of witches. Indeed, some of the treatments used for Internet addiction, such as the abusive Internet treatment boot camps in China where several teens have died, suggest how easily the cure can become worse than the disease when unproven therapies for ill-defined problems spring up. (Boot camps have never been shown to help with any form of addiction.)

(MORE: Blogging Helps Socially Awkward Teens)

In fact, while expanding the diagnoses for addiction overall, the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, which will be published next year, rejected Internet addiction as a bona fide disorder. The Newsweek article spun this fact, highlighting instead that Internet addiction “will be included for the first time, albeit in an appendix tagged for “further study.’”

The truth is, we really don’t know much about how our online lives are affecting us. It’s quite possible that Internet use has the deleterious effects critics suggest — certainly some people do have difficulty controlling the amount of time they spend online. But is it the addictive effect of the Internet that keeps us checking our work emails on vacation or during evenings and weekends — or is it the fact that we fear we may lose our jobs if we don’t?

The Internet might indeed be a cause of our societal worries, but not necessarily because we’re addicted to it. And creating a moral panic based on flimsy evidence isn’t going to help, no matter what the real cause of our problems.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer for TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland‘s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/13/does-the-internet-make-everyone-or-just-journalists-crazy/#ixzz20liW8KQU