Natalia Martín-María

A study published in Scientific Reports concludes that adults who use Instagram very frequently overestimate their ‘addictive’ use, which complicates self-control and increases feelings of guilt. According to the research, excessive use, in most cases, is not an addiction but a habit. The study was conducted on more than 1,000 Americans and suggests that the fact that many think they have an ‘addiction’ may be related to the media's frequent use of this term when talking about social media. 

From 2014 to 2023, one in six people in the world suffered from loneliness, according to a World Health Organisation report, which outlines the causes of this phenomenon and its multiple impacts: on physical and mental health and mortality, as well as on work and the economy. The report estimates that loneliness is linked to more than 871,000 deaths per year and highlights a higher incidence among young people and in low- and middle-income countries.

Unmarried people - whether single, divorced/separated or widowed - have a higher risk of having depressive symptoms than married people, says an international study. The paper, published in Nature Human Behaviour, includes data from more than 100,000 adults in China, Indonesia, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, the UK, the USA and the UK.

People who have a parent, sibling, or step-sibling with major depression have a higher risk of major depression themselves, according to research based on data from 2.9 million people in Denmark. This risk increases with the number of affected relatives and when exposure to depression occurs in childhood and adolescence, but does not vary by sex or kinship, says the study published in JAMA Psychiatry.