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World J Psychiatry. May 19, 2023; 13(5): 160-173
Published online May 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i5.160
Neurobiological risk factors for problematic social media use as a specific form of Internet addiction: A narrative review
Sergey Yu Tereshchenko
Sergey Yu Tereshchenko, Department of Child's Physical and Mental Health, Federal Research Center “Krasnoyarsk Science Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Research Institute of Medical Problems of the North, Krasnoyarsk 660022, Russia
Author contributions: Tereshchenko SY analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sergey Yu Tereshchenko, PhD, Doctor, Senior Researcher, Department of Child's Physical and Mental Health, Federal Research Center “Krasnoyarsk Science Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Research Institute of Medical Problems of the North, Partizana Zheleznyaka street, 3G, Krasnoyarsk 660022, Russia. legise@mail.ru
Received: December 27, 2022
Peer-review started: December 27, 2022
First decision: February 2, 2023
Revised: February 13, 2023
Accepted: April 7, 2023
Article in press: April 7, 2023
Published online: May 19, 2023
Processing time: 143 Days and 7.5 Hours
Abstract

Problematic social media use (PSMU) is a behavioral addiction, a specific form of problematic Internet use associated with the uncontrolled use of social networks. It is typical mostly for modern adolescents and young adults, which are the first generations fully grown up in the era of total digitalization of society. The modern biopsychosocial model of the formation of behavioral addictions, postulating the impact of a large number of biological, psychological, and social factors on addictive behavior formation, may be quite applicable to PSMU. In this narrative review, we discussed neurobiological risk factors for Internet addiction with a focus on current evidence on the association between PSMU and structural/ functional characteristics of the brain and autonomic nervous system, neurochemical correlations, and genetic features. A review of the literature shows that the vast majority of the mentioned neurobiological studies were focused on computer games addiction and generalized Internet addiction (without taking into account the consumed content). Even though a certain number of neuroimaging studies have been conducted for PSMU, there is practically no research on neuropeptide and genetic associations for PSMU to date. This fact points to the extremely high relevance of such studies.

Keywords: Internet addiction; Problematic social media use; Addictive behavior physiopathology; Neurobiology; Genetics

Core Tip: The analysis of sources showed that the vast majority of neurobiological research was focused on the study of computer games addiction and generalized Internet addiction (without taking into account the content consumed). There is practically no research on neuropeptide and genetic associations for problematic social media use to date. This fact points to the extremely high relevance of such studies.