Epigenetics & the body·Overview
DNA Methylation in Neurobiological Genes Associated with Problematic Digital Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Exploratory Multilevel Meta-Analysis
Przegląd systematyczny i metaanaliza; Epigenomes (MDPI), sierpień 2026 (PMC)
The trace of problematic use is already visible in DNA methylation.
The first systematic review with meta-analysis to ask directly about the trace of problematic internet and smartphone use in the epigenome of adolescents and young adults. The authors gathered studies measuring DNA methylation in neurobiologically relevant genes in people with problematic digital use and pooled the effect.
The meta-analytic result: a significant positive association between problematic digital exposure and DNA methylation differences, r = 0.287. It concerns genes regulating the stress response — the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis — and neurotransmission and emotion regulation, systems linked to vulnerability to psychiatric disorders.
The authors are careful and it bears repeating: exploratory evidence, biologically plausible, neither causal nor clinical; the studies are few and heterogeneous. But it is exactly the link this group lacked — not “stress in general” but digital exposure, with its trace measured in biology. Later studies may confirm or overturn it; this one says it is worth looking for.
From the original
„Meta-analysis: problematic digital use is associated with DNA methylation differences in stress and neurotransmission genes (r = 0.287).”
- Year
- 2026
- Original language
- EN
- Source
- Przegląd systematyczny i metaanaliza; Epigenomes (MDPI), sierpień 2026 (PMC)
An overview in the EPIQ team’s own words, not a translation. The full text remains with the publisher — link below. Quotations are short, verbatim and attributed, within the right of quotation.