Problematic Internet use in Older Adults, A Critical Review of the Literature

Lately, the use of Internet has become increasingly common as a potent information tool, as a communication enhancer and as a relevant healthcare tool recognized by WHO. The other side of the coin is that problematic use of Internet is increasingly reported in adults and adolescents with significant somatic and psychiatric issues.

Problematic Internet use as a disorder is subject to debate. Some researchers’ tend to hypothesize it as an impulse control disorder, others as an obsessive-compulsive disorder and, finally, others as an addiction. The phenomenon was first described in 1996. K.Young exposed that in most situations, patients described moderate to severe consequences of Internet use on their quality of life and failed in controlling their behaviour.

Scientific research since then has provided a growing evidence for Internet addiction reality and its psycho-physiological and neurobiological closeness to addictive disorder. Internet Gaming Disorder has been recently listed in DSM V Section III to encourage more clinical research and experience. As Internet provides easy access to some engines (online stores, online casinos ...) it could also represent a potential worsening vector to a pre-existingoffline addiction (e.g., pathological gaming or gambling, compulsive buying). Nevertheless, addictive properties of the vector Internet itself have also been discussed.

Entry into advanced age is particularly marked by somatic disorders and a resurgence of factors leading to the emergence of psychiatric disorders. In these circumstances, the question arises as to the place Problematic Internet use (PIU) takes (or will take in the future) in old people, despite its controversial belonging to addictive or other psychiatric disorders.