Study Reveals That Smartphone Addiction Causes Imbalance in Brain Chemistry

Smartphones are a great companion, no doubt about that, going on a long trip by land, sea or by air, once you have your smartphone, you're sure to have a great flight. You can do a handful of things while in transit, you can play games, read e-books or play your favourite music tracks, etc. But in our 21st century, you can easily find a lot of people who are glued to their smartphones and the results of a recent study might make you wanna ditch your smartphones and most of your digital gadget because they make us sick more than we are willing to accept.

A study conducted by the researchers at Korea Universty and was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America has revealed that prolonged use of mobile devices could impact the chemical balance of people’s brain.

A medical team, led by Dr. Hyung Suk Seo, with the help of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), examined the impact of smartphone usage and its effects on the brain’s chemistry on a group of 19 individuals (9 males and 10 females) with a 15.9 mean age who was earlier diagnosed with smartphone addiction.

12 out of the 19 teenagers were given cognitive behavioral therapy that ran through a course of nine months. Through standardized tests, multiple questions were put in front of the people, before and after the cognitive behavioral therapy, to analyze how smartphone and internet have affected their daily routine, sleeping patterns, social life, etc. And Dr. Seo drew to a conclusion with respect to his finding that teenagers who had a higher intensity of addiction had a higher score in depression, anxiety, insomnia activity, and impulsivity. 

This is due to an imbalance of brain chemicals including GABA (Gamma Aminobutyric Acid) and Glx (Glutamate-glutamine). Their task is to slow down brain signals and electrically excite neurons respectively.

However, it cannot be denied that the use of these electronic gadgets especially phones and computers maybe without an everyday data connection as the case may be have become one of the basic necessity in our everyday life now. So the question now is if we are to stop using these gadgets? What are your views on smartphone addiction? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

Also Read:   Is it Dangerous to Sleep Close to My Smartphone? Does the Radiation Really Cause Cancer?

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