To determine whether someone is spending an unhealthy amount of time with their computers, two University of Florida psychiatrists say doctors need to only remember the acronym MOUSE.
Web surfing, e-mailing, instant messaging, gaming, shopping, downloading music and visiting chat rooms become troublesome when they interfere with someone's job or social life, said Dr. Nathan Shapira of UF's Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute.
The challenge for health care professionals is to determine when high Internet use is dysfunctional, and whether unhealthy Internet use is a lone disorder or a byproduct of other disorders, such as manic depression.
Writing in the current issue of the journal Depression and Anxiety, UF scientists propose criteria to diagnose problematic Internet use that they formulated on the basis of their research findings and other available data.
web addict