Addiction is widely Acknowledged - on the internet
Editor - As part of the medical profession - either as qualified doctors or as students - we are being encouraged to use the internet more and more in our professional lives. Communicating by email, reading journals, submitting papers, searching for articles using Medline, and making use of the many health related sites are all activities that we are encouraged to do online. Therefore, as our use of the internet increases, our risk of net addiction also increases. Whether this risk will be higher than that of any other professional group remains to be seen. The pattern of net addiction in medical professionals may even follow that of alcohol addiction, whose prevalence is higher among medics than in any other professional group. Doctors and medical students alike may find the web to be the perfect outlet for the stresses of medical life.
It was ironic therefore to see that Young's editorial on net addiction was immediately followed by another editorial encouraging us as students to go online and use the studentBMJ website as a place not only for learning but also for relaxation.1,2
Perhaps the biggest irony is that net addiction, although ignored by the medical profession until recently, is well acknowledged on the internet. Information, self help groups, and various web sites for net addicts are numerous and can be easily found using simple searches. Currently, the best way to help yourself or a patient may therefore be to go online.
Pardeep S Jhund, fourth year medical student, University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ
Email: 9502693j@student.gla.ac.uk
studentBMJ 1999;07:394-436 November ISSN 0966-6494
- Young KS. Internet addiction: evaluation and treatment. studentBMJ 1999;7:351-2. (October.)
- Knight S. Calling all cyberfans. studentBMJ 1999;7:352-3. (October.)
