一項新研究表明，使用社交媒體和抑郁之間存在關聯，但導致抑郁的原因可能并非單純的使用，而是過分沉迷社交媒體。

該研究報告的作者之一、匹茲堡大學醫學院統計專家埃瑞爾?申薩在發送給路透健康頻道的電子郵件中說：“我們相信，至少應該讓臨床醫生知道二者之間的聯系，可能會幫助他們診治抑郁癥病人。舉例來說，醫生也許想了解使用社交媒體的模式，進而判斷這些模式是否屬于適應不良。”

申薩和她的團隊隨機挑選了1763名年齡在19-32歲的病人，詢問了他們的抑郁癥狀、社交媒體使用情況和上癮行為。

衡量社交媒體使用情況的標準是瀏覽11個熱門社交媒體網站的次數和時長，這些網站包括Facebook、推特、Google+、YouTube、領英、Instagram、Pinterest、Tumblr、Vine、Snapchat和Reddit。

為評估沉迷社交媒體的程度，研究人員調整了一項名為卑爾根Facebook上癮程度的調查，主要考察成癮行為，比如情緒變化、戒除和復發。

今年3月30日在華盛頓召開的美國行為醫學學會年會上，研究人員在報告中指出，除正常工作之外，一半的受訪者每天至少在社交媒體上花費一小時，每周瀏覽社交媒體網站30次。

按照研究人員采用的狹義成癮標準計算，14%的受訪者存在上癮癥狀；如果按照廣義成癮標準，這個數字為44%。

一如預期，使用社交媒體越頻繁，沉迷程度越高。但仔細研究沉迷程度之后發現，使用社交媒體和抑郁之間聯系并不顯著。

看起來，對社交媒體上癮和抑郁的關系更大。研究人員發現，要了解社交媒體究竟如何導致抑郁，上癮在所有因素中占約四分之三。

弗吉尼亞州諾福克市的琳賽?霍華德是弗吉尼亞臨床心理學大學聯盟項目負責人之一，她沒有參加上述研究。霍華德說：“說到底，造成適應不良的看來是使用社交媒體的方式，而非使用頻率。”

霍華德在研究中發現了類似現象，也在本次行為醫學學會年會上做了介紹。她的團隊發現，通過社交媒體來尋找慰藉的行為可能和對身材較為不滿以及飲食不規律有關，但使用社交媒體的頻率和這些抑郁癥狀無關。

霍華德說：“醫生應該告訴病人，使用社交媒體的跟抑郁等不良癥狀可能存在怎樣的聯系。或許還可以推薦病人使用Freedom等軟件限制使用頻率，并培養在固定時間上社交媒體的習慣。”（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Studies have linked the use of social media to depression, but addiction to social media, rather than use alone, may explain the connection, new research suggests.

“We believe that at least having clinicians be aware of these associations may be valuable to them as they treat patients with depressive disorders. For example, they may wish to inquire about social media use patterns and determine if those patterns are maladaptive,” coauthor Ariel Shensa of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine told Reuters Health by email.

Shensa and her team randomly selected 1,763 participants, ages 19-32, and asked them about their depressive symptoms, social media use and addictive behaviors.

Social media use was measured by the number of visits and amount of time spent on 11 popular social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat and Reddit.

To assess addiction to social media, the researchers modified a survey called the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, looking at addictive behaviors such as mood modification, withdrawal and relapse.

In a presentation March 30 at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Washington, DC, the researchers reported that half the participants spent at least an hour a day on non-work related social media use and made 30 site visits per week.

Depending on whether the researchers used narrow or broad criteria for addiction, 14 to 44 percent of participants had scores that suggested a problem.

As expected, high social media usage was linked to higher addiction scores. But after taking addiction scores into consideration, social media use and depression were not significantly linked.

Addiction and depression did appear to be linked, however. Addiction seemed to explain roughly three-quarters of the effect of social media use on depression, the researchers found.

“Ultimately, it appears that the way social media is used, rather than the amount social media is used, leads to maladaptive outcomes,” says Lindsay Howard of the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology in Norfolk, who was not involved in the study.

Howard found similarities in the study with her own research, which she also presented at the conference. Her team found that the act of seeking reassurance through social media may be related to higher degrees of dissatisfaction with one’s body and eating disorders, but the frequency of social media use was not tied to those depressive symptoms.

“Physicians should educate their patients regarding how social media use may be related to depression and other negative outcomes,” Howard said. “They might also recommend the use of applications such as ‘Freedom’ that allow patients to limit how often and when they use social media.” Howard says.