Yet another study has claimed that teenagers who indulge in excessive use of the internet have a higher chance of showing symptoms of depressions.

Psychologists say that youngsters who develop compulsive internet usage habits are more likely to suffer from severe and moderate depressive tendencies. This also includes teenagers who replace their social life and other physical activities with social networking sites and other online chats.

The side effects of over-usage of the internet extend to other disorders like poor physical health, relationship problems, psychological disorders, aggressive behaviors and even alcohol abuse.

“Young people who are initially free of mental health problems but use the Internet pathologically could develop depression as a consequence,” said study authors Dr. Lawrence T. Lam of the School of Medicine in Sydney and Zi-Wen Peng of the Ministry of Education in Guangzhou, China.

The researchers tracked a total of 1,041 teenagers between the ages of 13-18 years in China’s southern Guangzhou city to prove a link between internet addiction and mental health in teenagers.