16 | New Scientist | 7 December 2019
PEOPLE who are suicidal seem
to have unusual patterns of brain
activity. The differences aren’t big
enough to identify people who
may try to kill themselves. “But we
hope it will provide us with more
information about what may be
happening in terms of brain
mechanisms,” says Anne-Laura
van Harmelen at the University
of Cambridge.
The finding comes from a
review of 131 brain-scan studies,
comprising more than 12,
people. Van Harmelen and her
colleagues looked to see whether
there are distinctive patterns of
brain activity in those who had
made suicide attempts or had
been thinking about suicide.
Most of these studies compared
people with a certain mental health
condition, such as depression, who
had a history of suicidal behaviour,
with a similar group with that
condition who hadn’t become
suicidal, or with people without
mental health problems.
The team found that two brain
networks appear to function
differently. One of these involves
areas at the front of the head
known as the medial and lateral
ventral prefrontal cortex and their
connections to regions involved
in emotion. This may lead to
difficulties regulating emotions,
says van Harmelen.
A second involves regions
known as the dorsal prefrontal
cortex and inferior frontal gyrus
system, which play a role in decision
making (Molecular Psychiatry,
doi.org/dgbf).
However, the differences in
these networks may just reflect that
people who are suicidal are in more
distress, rather than indicating
specific thoughts of suicide. ❚
Need a listening ear? UK Samaritans:
116123 (samaritans.org). Visit
bit.ly/SuicideHelplines for hotlines
and websites for other countries.Mental healthClare WilsonNews
Suicidal behaviour
linked to two brain
networks
Analysis Screen timeKNOW any teenagers? Chances
are they will have a phone on
them – and that is a big mental
health problem. At least, that is the
impression you get from recent
headlines saying that one in four
teens are addicted to smartphones.
These reports were based on a
paper finding that 23 per cent of
teens are using their phones in a
problematic way. A press release
said that this was “consistent
with a behavioural addiction”.
The paper also found that
those with problematic use were
three times more likely to report
feeling depressed, anxious or
that they weren’t getting enough
sleep. The narrative is irresistible:
smartphones are giving our
children mental health issues
(BMC Psychiatry, doi.org/df7z).
But it is debatable whether
anyone can be addicted to their
phone – or to using the internet
or playing computer games. Some
researchers say it is possible, while
others say it is meaningless to use
the term addiction in this context.
The new paper, which is a
summary of 41 previous studies
of phone use, doesn’t shed light
on this question, except to confirmthat some teens are on their
phones an awful lot.
The researchers looked at
studies that used surveys to assess
people’s behaviour. The most
common survey includes several
questions that could merely
indicate high levels of phone use
without it necessarily being a
pathological medical condition.
Questions include whether
people use their phone for longer
than they had intended, whether
it had caused them to miss someplanned schoolwork, or if they
had been told by others they
were using it too much. Can
this really identify addiction?
Substitute “phone” for “book”
and you can imagine a keen
reader answering yes to many
of these questions.
When I put this to one of the
study authors, Nicola Kalk at
King’s College London, she said
the surveys were widely used. She
also cited examples of teens whospend so much time gaming on
their phones that they won’t stop
to get washed or leave the house.
That certainly would be disturbing
behaviour, but this study doesn’t
tell us anything about the number
of teens in such an extreme state.
Another concern is that the
studies included in the review
were unrepresentative, says
Amy Orben at the University of
Cambridge. That is because Kalk’s
team scanned the database of all
studies on phone use by using
“addictive” as one of the search
terms. Studies that found low
levels of problematic use may
have been overlooked, says Orben.
Kalk and co-author Ben Carter,
also at King’s College, agree that
this is a limitation but say the
findings still suggest a pattern
that requires further investigation.
The other claim, that phones
are making young people
depressed, isn’t supported at
all; the studies merely show a
correlation between phone use
and reported mental health issues,
not that phones are the cause.
It is plausible that feeling
depressed because, for instance,
you don’t have many friends
makes you more likely to game
or talk online as a way of coping.
If that is so, parents who respond
to the latest headlines by taking
their child’s phone away could
make things worse.
To be fair to the researchers,
their paper does state that they
have only found an “association”
between phone use and mental
health issues, but the fact that
this isn’t proof of causation has
been glossed over by much of the
media. It is almost as if journalists
can’t resist a good story about
teenagers and their phones.
You might say we are addicted. ❚RICHARD
BAKE
R/GET
TY
IMAGESFear not: this is likely
to be absolutely fine23%
Apparent number of teenagers
addicted to their phoneNo, teens aren’t addicted to smartphones Journalists
can’t seem to resist headlines claiming that screens are ruining
children’s lives, but the evidence is slim, says Clare Wilson