Pharmacological interventions for Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI): A narrative review of current progress and future directions

Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI) represents a spectrum of excessive online behaviors and is linked to reduced quality of life and high rates of psychiatric comorbidity, with growing demand for effective treatments. This paper provides a narrative review of pharmacological studies for PUI conducted to date. Most pharmacological treatment trials have focused on bupropion and escitalopram or involved samples with common comorbidities and used current treatments for the relevant comorbid disorders. Overall, there remains a dearth of high-quality evidence, with the current literature lacking control groups, large sample sizes, validated outcome measures, longer term treatment and follow-up periods. The literature cannot at this stage determine evidence-based pharmacological treatments for PUI.