Smartphones blamed for rising cases of attention deficit disorder in adults

People who spend their free time online don’t allow their brains to rest.

If you are currently scrolling through the feed on your smartphone, remember how much time a day you spend on your gadget. Researchers say the steady rise in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adults is linked to the use of mobile devices.

Doctors have been trying to figure out whether the steady increase in ADHD in adulthood is simply due to improved screening or due to environmental and behavioral factors.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who use their smartphones two or more hours a day are 10% more likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Everyone is accustomed to the fact that this disorder most often occurs in children. Often the child simply outgrows this period. However, the abundance of “distractions” (same smartphones, social networks, etc.) is creating an epidemic of ADHD among adults.

Researchers suggest that social media bombards people with constant information, causing them to take frequent breaks from work to check their phone.

People who spend their free time online don’t allow their brains to rest or focus on a single task, and a combination of distractions can cause adults to have a shorter attention span.

“The possibility of acquired attention deficit may be considered,” John Ratey, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told National Geographic.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has historically been defined as a genetic disorder that can be controlled with medications and therapy. But now researchers have discovered that lifestyle changes later in an individual’s development (excessive use of smartphones) can turn ADHD into an acquired disorder.

The number of adults diagnosed with ADHD worldwide has jumped from 4.4% in 2003 to 6.3% in 2020. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 8.7 million adults in the United States have ADHD, and approximately six million children ages 3 to 17 have been diagnosed.

“That’s about 366 million adults worldwide who are currently living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is roughly equivalent to the population of the United States,” said Russell Ramsay, co-founder of the Pennsylvania Adult ADHD Treatment and Research Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers examined several studies dating back to 2014 that analyzed the correlation between ADHD and technology use.

The study found that adolescents who did not have symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at baseline did show that there was a “significant association between increased digital media use and ADHD symptoms after 24 months of follow-up.”

A separate 2018 study looked at whether smartphones contribute to the development of ADHD symptoms in adolescents over a two-year period. This study found that by the end of the study, 9.5% of adolescents who reported frequent use of social media at the start of the study exhibited symptoms of ADHD after completing the study.

Adults who want to overcome the unwanted side effects of smartphone use should take steps to develop a healthy relationship with their technology, including spending less time on their phone, setting limits on how long they can use their phone, and setting aside time to take a break from technology.