Manoj Kumar Sharma
Clinicians & Public Health · NIMHANS Bengaluru, SHUT Clinic
Runs India's first tech de-addiction clinic and a national digital-detox helpline out of NIMHANS Bengaluru.
Manoj Kumar Sharma is a clinician at NIMHANS — the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences — in Bengaluru, India, where he runs SHUT, the country's first clinic dedicated to treating problematic technology use, alongside a national digital-detox helpline. His work represents one of the most established clinical responses anywhere to tech-related compulsive use, combining direct patient care with research that has helped shape India's public-health understanding of screen use among children and young people. Sharma's NIMHANS-based program is frequently cited as a reference point for other countries building their own clinical responses to problematic screen use.
Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.
WORKS IN THE LIBRARY (11)
STUDIES
Effectiveness of Multimodal Psychotherapeutic Intervention for Internet Gaming Disorder
In this Psychiatry Research study, NIMHANS clinician Manoj Kumar Sharma and colleagues tested a ten-session, once-weekly intervention combining motivational strategies, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral techniques for people showing signs of internet gaming disorder. Of 40 young people enrolled, 33 (average age about 20) completed the eight-week program. Scores on standard internet-addiction and gaming-disorder screening tools dropped significantly from before to after treatment, and participants reported improved quality of life. The authors describe internet gaming disorder as a pattern of use associated with functional impairment rather than a settled diagnosis, and note the small, uncontrolled sample as a limitation calling for larger studies. TechKids Foundation cites this as one of the few published outcome studies from an Indian clinical program addressing problematic gaming in young people.
Technology Addiction Survey: An Emerging Concern for Raising Awareness and Promotion of Healthy Use of Technology
Published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, this NIMHANS-led community survey screened 2,755 people across a broad age range for signs of internet and mobile-phone overuse. Manoj Kumar Sharma and co-authors report internet-overuse indicators in about 1.3% of respondents and mobile-phone-overuse indicators in about 4.1%, with both patterns somewhat more common among men and among people from single or nuclear households compared with joint families. The paper frames these figures as an early, population-level awareness-raising screening effort rather than a clinical prevalence study, and argues for public-health promotion of healthy technology habits. TechKids Foundation cites this as an early data point behind NIMHANS's later clinical and public-health work on technology use in India, predating the SHUT Clinic's more targeted adolescent-focused research.
Mobile Phone Addiction Among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review
In this Journal of Addictions Nursing systematic review, Maya Sahu, Sailaxmi Gandhi, and Manoj Kumar Sharma pooled 12 descriptive studies on mobile-phone use among children and adolescents. They report that roughly 6% to 16% of the young people studied across these 12 studies showed patterns of problematic mobile-phone use, and that this use was associated, in the reviewed literature, with low mood, tension and anxiety, disrupted sleep from staying up late, and behavioral concerns including hyperactivity and conduct problems. The authors note that no controlled intervention studies were available for children and adolescents specifically, calling this an urgent research gap, while stressing mobile phones' genuine value for maintaining social connection. TechKids Foundation cites this review as a clinician-authored map of what is, and is not, yet established about mobile-phone use and youth mental health in the published literature.
Gaming—A Bane or a Boon—A Systematic Review
This Asian Journal of Psychiatry systematic review by Nisha John, Manoj Kumar Sharma, and Aruna Rose Mary Kapanee surveyed 41 studies published between 1997 and 2017 on video and online gaming's effects on behavior and mental health. The authors describe gaming preferences as shaped by age, gender, parental involvement, and game design, and note that excessive gaming has been associated in the reviewed literature with strained relationships and, in a small number of extreme cases they cite, viral game challenges linked to self-harm, such as the Blue Whale Challenge. They also point to gamification's documented benefits in education, health, and social settings. The review calls for more cross-cultural research to weigh gaming's risks against its recognized benefits rather than treating it as uniformly harmful. TechKids Foundation cites this as a clinician-authored review holding both gaming's risks and its benefits in view.
A Retrospective Study of Life Skills Promotes Healthy Internet Use Among Adolescents
This Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care study, co-authored by Manoj Kumar Sharma, followed 352 Indian adolescents from mid-2021 to late 2022 to examine how life skills relate to technology use and mood in the post-pandemic period. The authors report that more than half of participants showed moderate patterns of internet or smartphone use consistent with problematic use on screening measures, and that roughly three-quarters showed mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms. Stronger life-skills scores were associated with lower technology-use severity, and class level and life-skills scores were both associated with depressive-symptom levels. The authors argue that structured life-skills training in schools and colleges could serve as a protective, preventive measure against dysfunctional internet use and related mood difficulties. TechKids Foundation cites this as evidence supporting school-based, skills-focused prevention rather than restriction alone.
Urban and Rural Pattern of Internet Use Among Youth and Its Association with Mood State
In this Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care study, Ameer Hamza, Manoj Kumar Sharma, and colleagues surveyed 731 Indian youth aged 18 to 25 in urban and rural settings using standardized internet-use and mood-symptom scales. They found no meaningful difference in internet-use patterns by gender or by urban-versus-rural setting, but did find a significant association between internet-use patterns and depression, anxiety, and stress scores that held across both geographies. The authors recommend that primary-care physicians routinely screen for psychological symptoms alongside internet-use patterns in young patients, rather than treating heavy use as a standalone concern separate from mental health. TechKids Foundation cites this as evidence that internet-use-linked mood concerns among Indian youth are not confined to cities, but appear in rural settings too.
NoMophobia Is Real: NIMHANS Launches a Helpline to Help You with Digital Detox
This South First article covers the November 2022 launch of a national digital-detox helpline run by NIMHANS's SHUT Clinic. Manoj Kumar Sharma, the clinic's coordinator, is quoted describing what he calls 'nomophobia' — anxiety about being without one's phone — and explaining that callers are guided toward a personalized reduction plan rather than total abstinence, since he considers complete technology cessation unrealistic for most people. He emphasizes identifying which specific apps or platforms are most problematic for an individual and setting concrete, gradually reduced time limits, describing consistency as the most important factor in a successful digital detox. TechKids Foundation cites this as a contemporaneous record of the helpline's launch and Sharma's own harm-reduction-oriented approach to problematic technology use.
From Fun to Addiction: NIMHANS Explains Gaming Trap in Children
This Statesman article profiles NIMHANS SHUT Clinic's clinical view of gaming among children, quoting Professor Manoj Kumar Sharma. He describes excessive gaming as often signaling underlying psychological difficulty rather than simple overuse, explaining that some children build such an absorbing in-game identity that it can crowd out their sense of self outside the game, and that gaming can become an unhealthy substitute for face-to-face relationships. He discusses how game design uses reward and task-completion mechanics to sustain engagement, and states that in his clinical experience, problematic gaming is associated with depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, emotional instability, and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts. He calls for early detection, family involvement, and structured digital routines. TechKids Foundation reports these as Sharma's own clinical characterizations, attributed to him, not as proof that gaming is a single cause of these outcomes.
Attention Span and Safety in E-Learning: An Interview with Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma
In this ParentCircle interview, conducted by psychologist Meghna Singhal during the shift to remote schooling, Manoj Kumar Sharma discusses children's attention and online safety. He argues that what matters is not simply hours logged online but signs of what he calls 'digital burnout' — fatigue and exhaustion from overuse — and cites research suggesting it takes several minutes for a student's concentration to recover after switching to a non-academic app mid-class. He recommends scheduling separate blocks for recreational screen use, building in regular movement breaks roughly every half hour, and approaching children's habits without judgment. On safety, he proposes a 'two Cs' framework — ongoing communication and cyber-literacy — to help children recognize cyberbullying, inappropriate content, and other online risks. TechKids Foundation cites this as a clinician's practical guidance for families navigating remote learning.
Mindless Scrolling Can Disturb Quality of Cognitive Processing: NIMHANS Researchers
This Hindu article, reported by Afshan Yasmeen, covers NIMHANS research led by Manoj Kumar Sharma into what the piece calls 'mindless scrolling' — extended, purposeless scrolling through social feeds. Sharma and his research team describe this pattern as associated with disturbed cognitive processing, reduced productivity, and weakened attention, and the article cites findings that it can take roughly 23 minutes, on average, to fully regain focus after a digital distraction. The piece frames mindless scrolling as arising from a combination of smartphone ubiquity and platforms' attention-capturing design choices, rather than as a simple personal failing. TechKids Foundation cites this as SHUT Clinic-linked research on attention and scrolling behavior reported to a general audience.