Internet Addiction and Its Relationship With Suicidal Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis of Multinational Observational Studies
Abstract
Objective To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies that investigated the putative association between internet addiction and suicidality. Data sources Major electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, ClinicalKey, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, Science Direct, and ClinicalTrials.gov) were searched using the following keywords (internet addiction OR internet gaming disorder OR internet use disorder OR pathological internet use OR compulsive internet use OR problematic internet use) AND (suicide OR depression) to identify observational studies from inception to October 31, 2017. Study selection We included 23 cross-sectional studies (n = 270,596) and 2 prospective studies (n = 1,180) that investigated the relationship between suicide and internet addiction. Data extraction We extracted the rates of suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts in individuals with internet addiction and controls. Results The individuals with internet addiction had significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation (odds ratio [OR] = 2.952), planning (OR = 3.172), and attempts (OR = 2.811) and higher severity of suicidal ideation (Hedges g = 0.723). When restricted to adjusted ORs for demographic data and depression, the odds of suicidal ideation and attempts were still significantly higher in the individuals with internet addiction (ideation: pooled adjusted OR = 1.490; attempts: pooled adjusted OR = 1.559). In subgroup analysis, there was a significantly higher prevalence rate…
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Persons who have any kind of internet addiction not only think of suicide but also have significantly higher rates of planning and of actually attempting suicide.
“A recent meta-analysis of these studies by Cheng et al. (2018) showed that persons who have any kind of internet addiction not only think of suicide but also have significantly higher rates of planning and of actually attempting suicide.”
From Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction (2021) · cites this paper as Cheng et al. (2018)
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Cited by 130
- Authors
- Cheng, Y.-S., Tseng, P.-T., Lin, P.-Y., Chen, T.-Y., Stubbs, B., Carvalho, A. F., Wu, C.-K., Chen, Y.-W., & Wu, M.-K.
- Affiliations
- Chang Gung University (TW)
- Tri-Service General Hospital (TW)
- National Health Service (GB)
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc
- Published
- 2018-06-05
- Volume
- 79
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 0160-6689 (ISSN-L)
- 1555-2101
- OpenAlex
- W2805940230
- Cited by
- 130
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 26.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (ICA-CL-2017-03-001, NIHR-INF-0685)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Keywords
- internet addiction, suicidality, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, suicide planning, internet gaming disorder, problematic internet use, depression, children and adolescents
- MeSH terms
- Screen Time, Humans, Suicide, Attempted, Behavior, Addictive, Internet, Suicidal Ideation
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