Abstract
The sudden appearance and spread of Internet addiction in adolescent populations, in association with the rapid escalation of consumed Internet content and the broad availability of smartphones and tablets with Internet access, is posing a new challenge for classical addictology which requires urgent solutions. Like the majority of other psychopathological conditions, pathological Internet addiction depends upon a group of multifactor polygenic conditions. For each specific case, there is a unique combination of inherited characteristics (nervous tissue structure, secretion, degradation, and reception of neuromediators), and many are extra-environment factors (family-related, social, and ethnic-cultural). One of the main challenges in the development of the bio-psychosocial model of Internet addiction is to determine which genes and neuromediators are responsible for increased addiction susceptibility. This information will herald the start of a search for new therapeutic targets and the development of early prevention strategies, including the assessment of genetic risk levels. This review summarizes the literature and currently available knowledge related to neurobiological risk factors regarding Internet addiction in adolescents. Genetic, neurochemical and neuroimaging data are presented with links to actual pathogenetic hypotheses according to the bio-psychosocial model of IA forming.
Highlights
The explosive growth of the Internet usage in our day-to-day life has created numerous technological advantages
The data from the international literature on Internet addiction (IA) in adolescents indicates a prevalence within the range of 1% to 18% [6], depending on ethnic social groups and the diagnostic criteria and questionnaires used in the study
Genetic tests for 593 adolescents aged 15 years resulted in finding the association between frequent alcohol drinking and the formation of alcohol addiction in boys up to the age of 25 with homozygosity related to the A allele variant of the rs53576 polymorphic region of the oxytocin receptor gene [51]
Summary
The explosive growth of the Internet usage in our day-to-day life has created numerous technological advantages. It has had a range of side effects impacting psychological and somatic health, which are especially important for a growing body and unformed mental functions. Internet addiction (IA) is a relatively new psychological phenomenon, most commonly marked in socially vulnerable groups (e.g., in adolescents and young adults). Other authors propose a “component bio-psychosocial model” combining psychosocial factors or problems—in particular, relational problems with peers and/or with adults—with the intergenerational transmission of psychopathological [10]) and neurobiological risk factors for the development of IA [13,14]. Some of the neurobiological risk factors for the development of IA in adolescents in accordance with the bio-psychosocial model will be discussed in this narrative review
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