Brain-Based Interventions to Optimize Digital Health in
Today’s Screen Culture
Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D., LCSW-R
Rehab Kids
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Brain-Based Interventions to Optimize Digital Health in
Today’s Screen Culture
Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D., LCSW-R
Copyright © 2020
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Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D., LCSW-R, is an Ivy League educated psychologist, best-selling author, internationally renowned speaker and an expert on mental health, addiction, and the impacts of our digital age. He has developed clinical treatment programs all over the country and is the founder and chief clinical officer of Maui Recovery in Hawaii, Omega Recovery in Austin and the Launch House in New York.
Dr. Kardaras is a former clinical professor at Stony Brook Medicine where he specialized in teaching the neurophysiology and treatment of addiction. He has also taught neuropsychol- ogy at the doctoral-level and has worked closely in developing clinical protocols with Dr. Howard Shaffer, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the director of their Division of Addiction.
Dr. Kardaras has written for TIME magazine, Scientific American, Psychology Today, Salon, the NY Daily News, and FOX News, and has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, FOX & Friends, NPR, Good Day New York and in Esquire, New York magazine and Vanity Fair. He was featured on the 2019 A&E TV series Digital Addiction and his 2016 NY Post Op Ed “Digital Heroin” went viral with over six million views and shares.
Dr. Kardaras is the author of the best-selling Glow Kids (St. Martin’s Press, 2016, now translated into 10 languages), the seminal book on the clinical, neurological and sociological aspects of technology addiction. He is the author of How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life (Conari, 2011) and often uses philosophy to help work with and treat young people who are struggling with an existential crisis.
Considered a leading expert on young people and digital addiction, he has clinically worked with over 2,000 teens and young adults over the last 18 years and has been active in advocating that screen addiction be recognized as a clinical disorder akin to substance addiction. As a result of his clinical training and expertise working with tech addiction, Dr. Kardaras has developed the most comprehensive treatment protocols to treat this emerging global problem. Dr. Kardaras is also a founding charter member of the not-for-profit National Institute for Digital Health and Wellness (NIDHW), which is an affiliate organization of the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy (NISLAPP) in Washington, D.C.
Speaker Disclosures: Financial: Nicholas Kardaras maintains a private practice. He is the CEO/Chief Clinical Officer for
Omega Healthcare Group. Dr. Kardaras receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. Non-financial: Nicholas Kardaras sits as a board member for the National Institute of Digital
Health Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond the
authorized practice of mental health professionals. As a licensed professional, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of
practice in accordance with and in compliance with your professions standards.
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH3QFTZMFso
Teenage  Mental  Health
Why Does the Brain Prefer Opium to Broccoli? •Steven E Hyman •Published in Harvard review of psychiatry 1994
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Chasing the  FeelGood  High
Dopamine is the “feel good” neurotransmitter that’s the  most critical in the addiction process.
Addictive drugs (and habitforming behaviors) provide a  shortcut to the brain's reward system by flooding the  nucleus accumbens with dopamine. The hippocampus lays  down memories of this rapid sense of satisfaction, and the  amygdala creates a conditioned response to certain  stimuli. 
How dopaminergic (how dopamine activating) a substance  or behavior is correlates with the addictive potential of  that substance or behavior
Dopaminergic substances or behaviors increase  dopamine levels so that the dopaminereward  pathway is activated, telling the individual to  repeat what they just did in order to get that feel good dopamine reward again and again.
Video Games Raise  Dopamine
Digital Drugs
Dr. Peter Whybrow, Director of Neuroscience at  UCLA, calls electronic screens and video games  “electronic cocaine”
Commander Dr. Andrew Doan, MD and Ph.D. in  neuroscience and the head of Addiction research  for the U.S. Navy/Pentagon calls interactive  screens digital “pharmakeia” (Greek for drug).
Chinese researchers call video games “electronic  heroin”
Digital  Drugs?
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“People are carrying around a portable  dopamine pump, and kids have basically  been carrying it round for the last 10  years.”
Dr. David Greenfield, Assistant Clinical  Professor of Psychiatry, University of  Connecticut School of Medicine
“Teens can get literally high when playing  these games…Interactive Media act as an  alternative reinforcer to drugs.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of NIDA  (National Institute of Drug Abuse)
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Digital  Morphine  and The  Military
At the University of  Washington, researchers found  that burn victims who played a  video game called Snow World  required NO morphine. 
Subsequent MRI research  showed that brain centers  related to pain were more  activated by the game than by  actual morphine. 
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Screens and the  HPA Axis
Research has shown screens to be hyper arousing and effect the “HPA Axis”  (HypothalmusPituataryAdrenal Axis) which  leads to “fight or flight response”. Blood  pressure goes up; pupils dilate; palms get  sweaty. 
Hour after hour of hyperaroused time can  lead to a “dysregulation effect” where  children can’t calm down and re “wired and  tired”. Dr. Dunckley has called this “Electronic  Screen Syndrome” and can look like ADHD,  moodiness and aggressive behavior.
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DIGITAL HEROIN: The Science of Screen  Addiction: Denham Hitchcock: Sunday Night • https://vimeo.com/260855006
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• “Facebook literally changes your relationship  with society, with each other. God only  knows what it’s doing to our children’s  brains.”
• Facebook is designed to exploit “a  vulnerability in human psychology” to get its  users addicted.
• “The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark  [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram,  it’s all of these people — understood this  consciously,” he said. “And we did it anyway.”
Facebook’s  Sean Parker  on “Facebook  Addiction”
Parker: “Facebook uses likes and shares to  create a ‘socialvalidation feedback loop’ that  keeps users coming back.
“We need to sort of give you a little  dopamine hit every once in a while, because  someone liked or commented on a photo or  a post or whatever,” Parker said. “And that’s  going to get you to contribute more content,  and that’s going to get you … more likes and  comments.”
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Schools that ban mobile phones see better  academic results
• “Ill Communication: The Impact of Mobile Phones on Student  Performance” a study by the London School of Economics found that  after schools banned mobile phones, the test scores of students aged  16 Improved by 6.4%.
• Banning mobile phones improves outcomes for the lowachieving  students saw an increase of 14.23% in test scores. 
• “The results suggest that lowachieving students are more likely to be  distracted by the presence of mobile phones, while high achievers can  focus in the classroom regardless of whether phones are present.  Banning mobile phones could be a lowcost way for schools to reduce  educational inequality.”
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Prevention: Delay portable electronic Devices until at least age 10.
Parents: Practice what you preach. Watch and moderate your own  tech habits. 
No screens at the dinner table (and, yes, have the whole family  eat—and talk—together).
One day a week: Digital Fast. Smell the roses.
Talk to your children early and often about tech concerns.
Foster balanced, resilient, empathic and emotionally strong  children.
Nurture healthy hobbies: Sports, art, music…nature activities…the  Scouts! But also let your children be BORED! 
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NOTES
NOTES
Notes.pdf
ZNM053395
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