STANFORD, CA – In what its publishers say is a “first-of-its-kind” study, a new telephone survey conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine (SUSM) indicates that “more than one out of eight Americans exhibited at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use,” according to a press release issued by SUSM last week.“We often focus on how wonderful the internet is – how simple and efficient it can make things,” said Elias Aboujaoude, MD, the lead author of the Stanford paper, which appears in the October issue of CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine. “But we need to consider the fact that it creates real problems for a subset of people.”

Aboujaoude, a clinical assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of Stanford’s Impulse Control Disorders Clinic, said that a small but expanding number of Web users are starting to report “unhealthy attachments to cyberspace,” the SUSM press release states.

Compulsive use of the internet to check email, make blog entries, or visit web sites is “not unlike what sufferers of substance abuse or impulse-control disorders experience: a repetitive, intrusive and irresistible urge to perform an act that may be pleasurable in the moment but that can lead to significant problems on the personal and professional levels,” the SUSM release states.

According to the SUSM release, the phone survey was conducted from a random sample of households nationwide, and interviewed 2,513 adults. The researchers note that “(B)ecause no generally accepted screening instrument exists for problematic internet use, the researchers developed their questions by extrapolating from other compulsive and addictive conditions.”

Based on the same manner of questions and criterion that researchers use to gauge “other compulsive and addictive conditions,” the researchers say their phone survey “suggests that potential markers of problematic Internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,” the paper states.

Among the survey’s findings:

• 68.9-percent of respondents were “regular internet users”
• 13.7-percent “found it hard to stay away from the internet for several days at a time”
• 12.4-percent “stayed online longer than intended very often or often”
• 12.3-percent had “seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point”
• 8.7-percent had “attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers”
• 8.2-percent used the Net as “a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood”
• 5.9-percent felt their “relationships suffered as a result of excessive internet use”

According to Stanford’s preliminary research, the “typical affected individual is a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use,” states the SUSM release.

The SUSM release notes that “some may hear this profile and assume that a person’s internet ‘addiction’ might actually be an extreme fondness for pornography,” Aboujaoude emphasized that porn sites are just one part of the “problem.”

“Not surprisingly, online pornography and, to some degree, online gambling, have received the most attention,” Aboujaoude said, “but users are as likely to use other sites, including chat rooms, shopping venues and special-interest Web sites.”

Aboujaoude concedes, however, that the survey “did not track what specific internet venues were the most frequented by respondents,” but said that other studies and clinical experience “indicate that pornography is just one area of excessive internet use.”

Of greatest concern among the survey’s findings, Aboujaoude said, is the number of people who hide their nonessential Web use or use the Net to “escape a negative mood,” which the researcher likened to drug and alcohol use.

“In a sense, they’re using the Internet to ‘self-medicate,’” Aboujaoude said. “And obviously something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their Internet activity.”

Some researchers, including others who appear accept the premise that internet use could possibly be considered an “addiction,” caution that the study’s results are far from conclusive and say that much more research needs to be done.

“The researchers conclude that impulse-control problems are related to excessive internet use, but the study does not prove that such use is a type of impulse-control disorder or a unique disorder,” John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ told Forbes.com.

“Demonstrating the validity of a brand new diagnostic disorder involves a great deal of research, and even then the final decision about a new disorder can be political,” added Suler. “Is internet addiction a unique mental disorder, or is it just a symptom of another, more ‘traditional’ type of disorder? Research has yet to determine this.”

Aboujaoude concurs that his study is just the first step and should not be read as a conclusive finding confirming the existence of ‘internet addiction.’

“We’re not saying this is a diagnosis – we still need to learn a lot more,” Aboujaoude said. “But this study was a necessary first step toward possibly identifying something clinically significant.”