Seniors’ Worsening Depression May Sometimes Predict Dementia

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — In some cases, worsening symptoms of depression in seniors might point to early dementia, a new study suggests.

The Dutch study can’t prove cause-and-effect, and certainly not every depressed senior is headed for dementia. But experts said the findings are intriguing.

“More research is needed, but the study raises the possibility of an overlap between the pathology of dementia and depression,” said Dr. Gisele Wolf-Klein, who reviewed the findings. She directs geriatric education at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

The study was led by Dr. M Arfan Ikram, an epidemiologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. His team tracked depression symptoms in more than 3,300 adults, aged 55 and older, in the Netherlands for 11 years. The patients were then monitored for signs of dementia for another 10 years.

During that follow-up, 434 of the participants developed dementia, including 348 cases of Alzheimer’s disease. Only those whose symptoms of depression increased over time were at increased risk for dementia, Ikram’s team found.

And not everyone in that group developed dementia: Only about 22 percent did so, the researchers said.

Still, that number was higher than for people who had a low level of symptoms of depression — only 10 percent in that group went on to develop dementia, the study found. That rate was similar for those with remitting (coming and going) symptoms of depression.

According to the research team, the findings suggest that having temporary depression — even if severe — does not have a lasting effect on the risk of dementia.

However, Ikram’s group believes that increasing symptoms of depression in older adults could be reflective of an early stage of dementia in some cases. They say the finding supports prior research suggesting that dementia and certain types of depression may have a common cause.

Wolf-Klein agreed. “Different courses of depression may reflect different underlying causes, and might be linked to different risks of dementia,” she theorized.

Dr. Aaron Pinkhasov is chair of behavioral health at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y. He called the research “the first robust study looking into the very important association between depression and dementia.”

Pinkhasov believes the findings point to a possible common cause between the underpinnings of some cases of depression and dementia.

The study “raises extremely important questions about the role of depression screening and treatment in mitigating the risk of dementia development,” he said.

The study was published April 29 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more on dementia.

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If You’re Craving Cookies, You Might Just Be Bored

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If you find yourself reaching into a bag of chips and you know you’re not hungry, maybe you’re just bored instead, new research suggests.

British researchers conducted two experiments to see how boredom affects people’s food choices.

In one trial, the researchers asked 52 participants to fill out a questionnaire about their food preferences before and after repeatedly copying the same group of letters. After completing that boring task, the participants were more likely to say they preferred unhealthy fare such as chips, sweets and fast food.

In a second experiment, 45 people were offered a number of healthy and unhealthy snacks while watching either a boring or funny video. Those who watched the boring video ate much more of the unhealthy snacks.

The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting this week.

“These results are in line with previous research suggesting that we crave fatty and sugary foods when we are bored. This strengthens the theory that boredom is related to low levels of the stimulating brain chemical dopamine and that people try to boost this by eating fat and sugar if they cannot alleviate their boredom in some other way,” said lead investigator Sandi Mann, a senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire.

Mann said this information could be helpful for people designing public health campaigns. If they want to encourage healthier food choices, they need “to take boredom, including boredom in the workplace, into account. Bored people do not eat nuts,” she said in a society news release.

Research presented at meetings is generally viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on healthy snacking.

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Jello Shots While Underage, Bigger Booze Problems Later?

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many underage Americans down jello shots, and these young drinkers are more likely to binge drink, drink heavily and get into alcohol-fueled fights, researchers say.

The Boston University researchers surveyed more than 1,000 alcohol users, aged 13 to 20, and found that just over 20 percent had consumed jello shots in the past 30 days. Rates were slightly higher among females than males, and higher among those from homes with lower incomes and those without internet access.

Compared to those who did not consume jello shots, users consumed alcohol an average of slightly more than two more days per week and had more drinks per month (31 versus 19). In addition, jello shot users got into more fights after consuming alcohol (close to 19 percent versus 9.5 percent), the study found.

But the study did not prove that consuming these alcohol-laced concoctions caused young people to engage in heavy drinking.

Still, the findings suggest that jello shot consumption should be included in data collected about youth alcohol use, according to study leader Dr. Michael Siegel. He is a professor of community health sciences at Boston University.

“Specific interventions to address this consumption may be warranted as part of the effort to reduce risky alcohol use among youths,” Siegel said in a university news release.

Further research is needed to learn more about the link between jello shots and risky drinking, he and his colleagues added.

The study was published online recently in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has more about underage drinking.

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Officials Report First Zika Death in Puerto Rico

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The first known Zika virus-linked death in Puerto Rico was announced Friday by officials of the U.S. territory.

A 70-year-old man with Zika died in February from severe thrombocytopenia, which causes a low blood platelet count that can lead to internal bleeding. The death was announced by Puerto Rico’s health secretary, Ana Rius.

So far, Puerto Rico has had more than 600 Zika cases, including 73 involving pregnant women. All 14 women who have given birth so far have had healthy babies, the Associated Press reported. Zika can cause severe birth defects.

Sixteen of the Zika patients in Puerto Rico have been hospitalized and four are believed to have developed temporary paralysis due to the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC is urging all residents of and travelers to Puerto Rico to continue to protect themselves from mosquito bites, take precautions to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of the virus, and seek medical care for any acute illness with rash or fever.

While the Zika virus poses little health risk to most people, it poses a significant threat to pregnant women because it can cause a birth defect called microcephaly, which results in babies born with abnormally small heads and brains.

To control the threat posed by Zika, officials in Puerto Rico are pursuing “vector control activities” that include indoor and outdoor spraying of insecticides and reducing mosquito breeding grounds, especially around pregnant women’s homes, the CDC said.

As of April 27, there were 1,025 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. states and territories, according to the CDC. Nearly all of these infections were acquired by people who had traveled outside the United States.

As mosquito season approaches, U.S. health experts expect to see more infections in Gulf Coast states such as Florida and Texas, as well as Hawaii.

Meanwhile, new research suggests the Zika virus was circulating in Haiti months before the first cases in Brazil — the epicenter of the outbreak — were reported last spring.

“We know that the virus was present in Haiti in December of 2014,” said Dr. Glenn Morris, director of University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. “And, based on molecular studies, it may have been present in Haiti even before that date.”

What remains unclear is exactly why there was such a widespread outbreak in Brazil, the study authors said, and more research is needed to reveal why the same did not happen in Haiti.

In Brazil, Zika infections have been linked to more than 5,000 cases of the birth defect microcephaly.

To uncover Zika’s presence in Haiti, the team of researchers analyzed three “mystery” infections reported in that country in 2014.

The cases involved school-aged children in Haiti’s Gressier/Leogane region who developed a fever. The students were taken to a free clinic where samples of their blood were screened for dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

The blood tests ruled out these three well-known viruses but little thought was given to the Zika virus, which was not known to be present in the region at the time.

Using an advanced testing method, the University of Florida researchers went back and analyzed the children’s blood samples. They found the samples tested positive for the Zika virus.

Their findings, published April 26 in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggest the virus was circulating in the Americas long before it swept through Brazil.

The earliest known outbreak of the Zika virus occurred in 2007 in a small group of islands in French Polynesia, known as the Yap Islands. That outbreak affected an estimated 73 percent of people aged 3 and older, the researchers said.

After comparing the viruses, the researchers found the genetic sequences of the slightly older Haitian strains of the virus were more similar to the French Polynesian strains than many of the Brazilian strains.

“There is a possibility that this virus had been moving around the Caribbean before it hit the right combination of conditions in Brazil and took off,” Morris said in a university news release.

“By using the sophisticated culturing and sequencing capabilities that we have here at the Emerging Pathogens Institute, we were able to begin to fill in some of the unknown areas in the history of the Zika virus, leading us toward a better understanding of what caused this outbreak to suddenly occur at the magnitude that it did in Brazil,” Morris said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the Zika virus.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

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These Adorable Sweet Potato ‘Nests’ are Perfect for Brunch

Photo: Beth Lipton

You have friends coming over for Sunday brunch. What to make that will look impressive, taste good, and also leave everyone feeling energized?

These little nests fit the bill in every way. They’ve got vitamin-rich sweet potatoes (also a great source of fiber, potassium, and other minerals), satiating eggs, and metabolism-boosting chili powder. Plus, look how cute they are! Serve a salad or some fruit on the side, and you’re good to go.

Sweet Potato Egg Nests

Yield: 12

1 lb. sweet potatoes, ends trimmed, potatoes scrubbed and thoroughly patted dry

3 Tbsp. neutral oil, like grapeseed

3/4 tsp. chili powder, optional

Salt and pepper

12 large eggs

Chopped parsley, for garnish, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Using a food processor with a shredding attachment or the large grates on a box grater, shred sweet potatoes (you’ll have about 4 2/3 cups). Warm oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sweet potatoes and chili powder, if using. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until just tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool.
2. Mist a 12-cup muffin tin with olive oil cooking spray. Place about 1/3 cup potatoes in each muffin cup. Press potatoes firmly into bottom and sides of each cup. Bake for 5 minutes.
3. Crack an egg carefully into each cup. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until eggs reach desired firmness, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan before carefully removing. (Run a knife or offset spatula around edges before carefully lifting out.) Sprinkle with parsley just before serving, if desired.

Note: Be sure to use large eggs, not extra large, because extra large will overflow the muffin cups.

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21 Signs You’ve Found Your Fitness Swole Mate

Image: Pond5

There’s strength in numbers—literally. While a solo sweat session can be therapeutic and confidence-boosting, we can all get by with a little help from our friends. Whether you thrive in spin class, at CrossFit, on group runs or at the yoga studio, it’s easier to feel motivated when you can look to your side and see a fitness buddy who can’t stop, won’t stop. (It’s no secret that working out with a partner or group of like-minded people has numerous benefits!) And if exercising at home is more your speed, commiserating over burpees with your online BFFs can motivate you to push your limits.

But what separates the good workout partners from the ride-or-die fitness besties that have your back, 100 percent of the time? Here are 21 signs you’ve found your fitness soul mate—er, swolemate.

RELATED: 20 Partner Exercises from the Fittest Couples on Instagram

21 Signs You’ve Found a True Fitness Buddy

1. The time flies when you’re sweating together.
Want to know how to make that HIIT workout easier? You’ll get a dose of healthy distraction when you’ve got a buddy. Robyn Broker, blogger at Run Birdie Run, forgoes her running playlists when she’s got a friend to entertain her. “A long run with a running BFF is a multi-hour conversation… Sometimes there’s constant chatter and sometimes there’s silence, but running completely transforms when it’s in a shared space.”

2. You don’t give in to each other’s excuses.
It’s easy to tell yourself you can’t do another rep. It’s harder to tell that to a friend. “When I work out with my boyfriend, we push each other way out of our respective comfort zones,” says Lauren Wolman, blogger at Peanut Butter Is My Boyfriend. “Whether he’s encouraging me to lift those 10 extra pounds or I’m convincing him that doing seven minutes of planks is a great idea, it’s not about competition or proving anything to each other. We’re working together to push ourselves further.”

RELATED: The 25 Craziest Workout Excuses Trainers Have Ever Heard

3. You’ll exercise together, even if you’re at different fitness levels.
Think having different fitness levels is a swolemate deal breaker? Think again. NYC-based runner and physical therapist Abby Bales is 30 minutes slower than her 3:04 marathon running buddy, but that doesn’t stop them. “My friend has worked out with me through everything—when I had a colostomy bag, after surgeries, when I was pregnant and barely moving, post-partum, and with my son in a stroller,” says Bales. “She never makes me feel like I’m not worthy of her fitness company.”

4. You’ll sacrifice sleep to meet up.
It’s tempting to hit the snooze button when you’ve got a solo workout on tap. But if you know your friend is waiting for you, you’re far less likely to bail. “My friend Nina is my accountabilibuddy,” says blogger Tracy Davis, who uses the term coined by her November Project workout group. Nina and Tracy made a pact to touch base at 5:45 a.m. to make sure they’re both out of bed and ready to go for a run or to the gym.

5. You’ll help each other recover properly.
Davis’s accountabilibuddy gives her the push she needs to keep her lower body foam rolled and feeling good, too. “She stays on top of me to make sure I’m doing my IT-band recovery work,” says Davis of her fitness bestie. We all strive to #NeverMissaMonday, but hey, sustainable workouts are the end goal, right?

RELATED: 7 Reasons to Never Miss a Monday Workout

6. You high five or fist bump on the reg.
You don’t have to pat your own back when you’re done sweating—your friend can do it for you. Even if it’s a shaky-armed high-five between push-up sets or a quick fist bump after Tabata, sometimes that classic, old-school form of encouragement is totally more validating than a push notification from your fitness tracker.

7. Their accomplishments are just as exciting as your own.
Whether it’s a race, a CrossFit competition, or holding a five-minute plank, training for your own goals is exciting, satisfying and empowering. Watching your fitness friend hit his or her goals, though? Equally if not more awesome. Runner Meggie Smith, blogger at The Thinks I Can Think, was psyched to watch her friend Jocelyn get a marathon PR, and the support is always mutual. “When I saw Jocelyn after I ran a Boston-Qualifying race, the first thing she said to me was, ‘Of course you did! I knew you would!’”

8. Things seem less scary when you’re together.
While Meghan Conroy’s workout bestie liked the front-row-center spot during spin class, 32-year-old Conroy, a senior research analyst in Los Angeles, preferred a less conspicuous seat. But Conroy eventually made her way to the front row. “I became more brave and finally tried the front row because there were two of us, and there was safety in numbers,” Conroy says. “That made it less scary.”

9. You look forward to your sweat dates, even after a long day.
“By the end of the workday, I’m typically dragging and have zero motivation,” says Conroy. But she can’t turn down the opportunity to meet up with her fitness buddy. “If I made plans to meet my friend at the gym for a boxing class, I’m going to show up. It gives me something to look forward to all day at the office.”

10. You share stuff that would be TMI to anybody else.
Bruised toes, chafing disasters, bathroom breaks gone wrong… you share it all and then some with your partner in crime. True sign of a swole mate? You’re not above swapping blister photos to get advice on popping technique.

Read the rest on Life by Daily Burn

More from Daily Burn:

Need Running Motivation? 20 Epic Runspo Instagrams
The 20 Worst People at the Gym, According to Trainers
What Happens to Your Body When You Skip the Gym

Life by Daily Burn is dedicated to helping you live a healthier, happier and more active lifestyle. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or de-stress, a better you is well within reach. Get more health and fitness tips at Life by Daily Burn.

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Link Between Money Woes, Domestic Abuse Tough to Untangle

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Money problems and domestic violence appear to be linked, but it’s not clear whether one leads to the other, researchers report.

“What we don’t know yet is whether financial stress makes a violent couple more violent, or is financial stress enough of a disruption in a relationship that violence begins? Both are plausible,” said study corresponding author Corinne Peek-Asa. She is the director of the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of Iowa.

Peek-Asa and her colleagues analyzed data collected from nearly 11,500 Americans, aged 24 to 32, in 2008 — the middle of the Great Recession. They then examined the association between financial issues and three levels of domestic violence: making threats/minor physical abuse; severe physical abuse; and physical abuse causing injury.

More women (about 28 percent) than men (almost 23 percent) reported money problems in the prior 12 months, the study found. And more women than men said they were unable to pay for utilities or housing; concerned about being unable to afford food; and worried about having utilities shut off or being evicted.

Women were also more likely to say they had resorted to threats and minor abuse, and more than twice as likely to have perpetrated severe physical abuse (11 percent versus 7 percent). But men were more likely than women to have committed physical abuse causing injury (32 percent versus 21 percent), the researchers reported.

Among all the study participants, about nine out of 10 women and men said they hadn’t committed any form of domestic violence to their partner in the previous year.

While the findings are helpful, they aren’t conclusive enough to develop ways of helping, said study author Laura Schwab-Reese, who earned her Ph.D. from the university’s College of Public Health.

“So, we know violence happened in the last year, and we know that financial stressors happened in the last year,” Schwab-Reese said in a university news release. “But what we haven’t been able to tease apart with this data is whether the financial stressor happened immediately before a violent episode, or did it exacerbate an already violent relationship? That is a really important point in terms of developing interventions.”

Identifying the central issue is crucial for providing effective help, Peek-Asa agreed.

“When we are developing interventions, do we need to focus on reducing the event, such as reducing the financial stressor, or do we need to help people manage the stress that happens as a result of the financial stressor?” she said.

The study was published online recently in the journal Injury Epidemiology.

More information

The U.S. Department of Justice has more on domestic violence.

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Today’s Hair Style Could Cause Tomorrow’s Hair Loss

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Black women who like to wear their hair pulled back tightly may be increasing their risk of hair loss, new research suggests.

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore reviewed 19 studies and found a “strong association” between scalp-pulling hair styles and traction alopecia, which is gradual hair loss from damage to the hair follicle from tension at the hair root.

Traction alopecia is the most common type of hair loss among black American women, affecting about one out of three, the researchers said.

The study did not prove a definitive cause-and-effect connection. But, styles linked with this type of hair loss include braids, tight ponytails, dreadlocks, weaves and extensions, especially if hair has been chemically straightened, the review said.

“Hair is a cornerstone of self-esteem and identity for many people but ironically, some hair styles meant to improve our self-confidence actually lead to hair and scalp damage,” Dr. Crystal Aguh, an assistant professor of dermatology at Hopkins, said in a university news release.

The findings show the need for dermatologists to learn more about these potentially damaging forms of hair styles and to advise patients about the risks and alternatives, the researchers suggested.

Traction alopecia is preventable and early intervention can stop or reverse it, the researchers said. Alternating hair styles, and avoiding those that constantly pull at the hair roots may help, they noted.

“We have to do better as care providers to offer our patients proper guidance to keep them healthy from head to toe,” Aguh said.

The study was published online April 27 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about hair loss.

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First Zika Death Reported in Puerto Rico

FRIDAY, April 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The first known Zika virus-linked death in Puerto Rico was announced Friday by officials of the U.S. territory.

A 70-year-old man with Zika died in February from severe thrombocytopenia, which causes a low blood platelet count that can lead to internal bleeding. The death was announced by Puerto Rico’s health secretary, Ana Ruis.

So far, Puerto Rico has had more than 600 Zika cases, including 73 involving pregnant women. All 14 women who have given birth so far have had healthy babies, the Associated Press reported. Zika can cause severe birth defects.

Sixteen of the Zika patients in Puerto Rico have been hospitalized and four are believed to have developed temporary paralysis due to the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC is urging all residents of and travelers to Puerto Rico to continue to protect themselves from mosquito bites, take precautions to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of the virus, and seek medical care for any acute illness with rash or fever.

While the Zika virus poses little health risk to most people, it poses a significant threat to pregnant women because it can cause a birth defect called microcephaly, which results in babies born with abnormally small heads and brains.

To control the threat posed by Zika, officials in Puerto Rico are pursuing “vector control activities” that include indoor and outdoor spraying of insecticides and reducing mosquito breeding grounds, especially around pregnant women’s homes, the CDC said.

As of April 27, there were 1,025 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. states and territories, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly all of these infections were acquired by people who had traveled outside the United States.

As mosquito season approaches, U.S. health experts expect to see more infections in Gulf Coast states such as Florida and Texas, as well as Hawaii.

Meanwhile, new research suggests the Zika virus was circulating in Haiti months the first cases in Brazil — the epicenter of the outbreak — were reported last spring.

“We know that the virus was present in Haiti in December of 2014,” said Dr. Glenn Morris, director of University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. “And, based on molecular studies, it may have been present in Haiti even before that date.”

What remains unclear is exactly why there was such a widespread outbreak in Brazil, the study authors said, and more research is needed to reveal why the same did not happen in Haiti.

In Brazil, Zika infections have been linked to more than 5,000 cases of a birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and brains.

To uncover Zika’s presence in Haiti, the team of researchers analyzed three “mystery” infections reported in that country in 2014.

The cases involved school-aged children in Haiti’s Gressier/Leogane region who developed a fever. The students were taken to a free clinic where samples of their blood were screened for dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

The blood tests ruled out these three well-known viruses but little thought was given to the Zika virus, which was not known to be present in the region at the time.

Using an advanced testing method, the University of Florida researchers went back and analyzed the children’s blood samples. They found the samples tested positive for the Zika virus.

Their findings, published April 26 in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggest the virus was circulating in the Americas long before it swept through Brazil.

The earliest known outbreak of the Zika virus occurred in 2007 in a small group of islands in French Polynesia, known as the Yap Islands. That outbreak affected an estimated 73 percent of people aged 3 and older, the researchers said.

After comparing the viruses, the researchers found the genetic sequences of the slightly older Haitian strains of the virus were more similar to the French Polynesian strains than many of the Brazilian strains.

“There is a possibility that this virus had been moving around the Caribbean before it hit the right combination of conditions in Brazil and took off,” Morris said in a university news release.

“By using the sophisticated culturing and sequencing capabilities that we have here at the Emerging Pathogens Institute, we were able to begin to fill in some of the unknown areas in the history of the Zika virus, leading us toward a better understanding of what caused this outbreak to suddenly occur at the magnitude that it did in Brazil,” Morris said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the Zika virus.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

---

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How Your Smartphone Is Ruining Your Relationship

Photo: Getty Images

Nothing kills romance faster than pulling out a smartphone, and now, research confirms it. Being attached to your phone seems to sabotage your attachment with your loved one.

Plenty of research has been done on how cell phones affect relationships. Some suggests that they’re a positive influence—that being in easy, intimate touch with a partner through calling and texting makes people happier and more secure in their relationships. Other research reveals the dark side of cell phones. Real-life interactions are dulled when a person feels the urge to check their phone, and the distraction a phone affords one partner doesn’t make the other person feel good.

But smartphones are far more invasive and demanding of our time, connecting us to the world in vastly more ways than the flip phones of yore. A team of researchers thought that smartphones might be making relationships worse, so they wrangled 170 college kids who were in committed relationships to see what role their phones were playing.

In the study, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, the college lovebirds were asked to report on their own smartphone use: how dependent they felt on their device, and how much it would bother them to go without it for a day. They then answered similar questions about their own partner’s smartphone dependency.

It didn’t matter much how much a person used their device, but how much a person needed their device did. People who were more dependent on their smartphones reported being less certain about their partnerships. People who felt that their partners were overly dependent on their devices said they were less satisfied in their relationship.

In other words, people get jealous of their partner’s smartphone. “I’m more likely to think my relationship is doomed the more I believe my partner needs that thing,” explains Matthew Lapierre, assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of Arizona, who authored the study with his former undergraduate student Meleah Lewis. “It’s not use; it’s the psychological relationship to that device.”

The researchers are now doing a followup experiment to try to understand the causal mechanisms behind their findings and to see whether or not smartphone dependency affects other areas of life, like academic performance, and whether factors like self-esteem predict a person’s smartphone obsession.

“Smartphones are fundamentally different from previous technologies, so their effect is much more powerful,” Lapierre says. “I don’t want to say it’s uniformly negative, but it definitely hints in that direction.”

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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