Internet Addiction and the Treatment of Depression? A Prospective Naturalistic Outcome Study

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) has been linked with a wide range of psychological disorders, including depression. We explored how IA was prospectively associated with effectiveness of treatment for adult patients with depressive symptoms (n = 241) in the context of a New York-based outpatient clinic. Although IA was not correlated with symptoms at intake, patients with higher IA attended fewer total sessions on average. Multilevel regression modeling also revealed that patients with higher IA scores terminated treatment with higher depression scores compared with those with lower IA scores. In addition, those with higher levels of IA were more likely to exhibit rising levels of depressive symptoms toward the end of the treatment, whereas patients with lower levels of IA maintained reduced depressive symptoms through termination. These results suggest that presence of IA may predict a less successful treatment outcome for adults with depression, as IA may slow down the process of symptom reduction and correlate with relapse.