Commentary: Did the internet cause an increase in the prevalence of mental disorders? – A commentary on Aboujaoude and Gega (2021)

Abstract

The article by Aboujaoude and Gega has made it clear that the internet is associated with new mental health problems, such as internet addiction, and an increase in existing mental health problems, like gambling and compulsive buying, as well as wider issues such as safeguarding and privacy. One question is, however, whether the internet is a causal factor in the incidence of new mental disorders. It is also possible that the people who develop an internet-related disorder would have developed another disorder if the internet would not have existed. The vulnerability–stress model says that a mental disorder is the result of an interaction between the vulnerability of an individual and the stress caused by life experiences of this person. Nobody will develop a mental disorder without being vulnerable for it. According to this model, it can be expected that most people would indeed have developed another disorder if the internet would not have existed. Unfortunately, it is impossible to examine whether the internet-related mental health problems increase the overall prevalence of mental disorders or not.