Taming the chimera-hydra: a multifaceted analysis of problematic use of the internet and eating disorders

In this thesis, the interaction between problematic usage of the internet and eating disorders is explored. It starts with investigating the building blocks of problematic internet use as a multifaceted and age-related concept and identifies its neurocognitive associations using meta-analytical group comparisons between those who engage in problematic usage and healthy controls. This thesis proceeds by pooling the evidence of how various facets of internet usage correlate with eating disorders and related psychopathology aiming to understand statistical relationships between the two concepts on various levels of analysis, e.g. general symptoms, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint etc. Subsequently, this thesis investigates a specific area of concern, which is the influence of problematic usage of the internet in vulnerable eating disorder populations with excessive exercise. It explores the influence of diagnostic categories and reviews the experimental and prospective studies, aiming to understand putative effects and directions of causality for the observed positive correlations. In sum, it provides a state of the art for the interaction between problematic internet use and eating disorders, highlighting gaps of knowledge and providing areas for future investigation.