PSYREFLECT

Issue #63

August 10, 2026

#1Research

The two items that inflate every social-media addiction score

A high total on a social-media addiction scale tells you how much of the scale a young person endorsed, not which part of it, and only one part of it travels with depression and anxiety.

social mediabehavioural addictionadolescentspsychometrics
5 minRead analysis
#2Research

The most burnt-out residents were the lightest users, not the heaviest

A doctor too depleted to open an app is not a low-risk doctor; in this sample she is the one with the worst depression, anxiety and insomnia scores of anyone.

behavioural addictionsocial mediascreening instrumentsburnout
5 minRead analysis
#3Tool

Extending the marketing ban after self-exclusion: a 2548-player randomised trial with a null primary outcome

The outcome this trial registered in advance, money lost, did not move; what moved was money deposited, a measure that appears nowhere in the registration.

gambling disorderself-exclusionharm reductiontrial registry
6 minRead analysis
#4Industry

New York puts a number on "addictive": the SAFE for Kids rules are final, the law starts in 2027

The state did not define addiction; it defined a threshold, 20 percent of user time on a personalised feed.

regulationadolescentssocial mediapolicy
4 minRead analysis
#5Industry

Behavioural Addiction at the Severe End: 93 Young Patients in a Moscow Case Series

Ninety-three patients in five years is not a prevalence estimate; it is a description of what behavioural addiction looks like once it is severe enough to reach a psychiatrist.

behavioural addictionpathological gamblingproblematic internet usecomorbidity
4 minRead analysis
#6Resource

NICE NG248: what to ask, when to refer, what to offer

For the presentations NICE lists – self-harm, depression, ADHD, cocaine use, homelessness, disclosed debt – asking about gambling stops being a matter of clinical judgement and becomes a stated instruction.

gamblingbehavioural addictionclinical guidelinesNICE
5 minRead analysis