Elias Aboujaoude, MD
Dr. Aboujaoude is a psychiatrist and author based at Stanford University. His research interests have focused on obsessive compulsive disorder and behavioral addictions, including problematic Internet use.
books- recent talks and events
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books
Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality on Amazon
author page at W. W. Norton Publishers
A penetrating examination of the insidious effects of the Internet on our personalities — online and off.
select translations 
reviews "one of this year's most thought-provoking jeremiads" (Lavonne Neff, The Christian Century)
Instantly engaging and eminently accessible, Aboujaoude offers an enlightening and cautionary exploration of an increasingly intrusive aspect of modern society. (Booklist)
A psychiatrist who specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorders argues persuasively that the Internet can be hazardous to our mental health. ... Aboujaoude offers a unique psychiatrist's perspective and an urgent wake-up call for those still in the dark. (Kirkus Reviews)
This is a timely volume on how the Internet has changed all of us in ways that we may not be aware of or that we prefer not to think about. It is an eye-opener and brings back a much-needed commonsense approach to the challenges posed by modern information and communication technology. The added value of the book is in its reliance on observation, wisdom and clinical experience, as well as data-driven knowledge. (Vladan Starcevic, MD, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney)The effects of the Internet on our individual and collective psyches are becoming clearer and more worrisome every day. Elias Aboujaoude has written a book that not only has been needed for several years but could become a modern classic. A must-read for all of us who log on every day (Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, former president of the American Psychiatric Association)Aboujaoude’s thorough review of the psychological and societal dangers of the online world is timely and important. These dangers are richly illustrated with clinical material and are thoughtfully analyzed using relevant research. Anyone who goes online at home or at work, or who has family or colleagues online, should carefully consider the issues raised in his volume. (Dan Stein, MD, professor and chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town)Dr. Aboujaoude documents a disturbing phenomenon that few medical professionals have written about, or understand, but most have witnessed. This important and intelligent book shows how the Internet has changed our lives, not all for the better. Relationships have become virtual, rather than real, and in the process, our personalities have been transformed to suit the new technology. Not suggesting we reverse the clock, Dr. Aboujaoude suggests we proceed with caution in this brave, new world, and try to better understand the transformative power of this new ‘virtualism.’ (Donald W. Black, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine)
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Compulsive Acts: A Psychiatrist's Tales of Ritual and Obsession on Amazon
In this compelling book, we meet a man who can't let anyone get within a certain distance of his nose, two kleptomaniacs from very different walks of life, an Internet addict who chooses virtual life over real life, a professor with a dangerous gambling habit, and others with equally debilitating compulsive conditions. Writing with compassion, humor, and a deft literary touch, Elias Aboujaoude, an expert on obsessive compulsive disorder and behavioral addictions, tells stories inspired by memorable patients he has treated, taking us from initial contact through the stages of the doctor-patient relationship. Into these interconnected vignettes Aboujaoude weaves his own personal experiences while presenting up-to-date, accessible medical information. Rich in both meaning and symbolism, Compulsive Acts is a journey of personal growth and hope that illuminates a fascinating yet troubling dimension of human experience as it explores a group of potentially disabling conditions that are too often suffered in silence and isolation.
reviews
- A wonderful read. These stories, written in a breezy, accessible style, illuminate several of the more mysterious and perplexing psychiatric ailments. Highly informative for both professional and lay readers. (Irvin Yalom MD, author of Love's Executioner)
- Dr. Aboujaoude is to be congratulated for writing such an important book. He writes lyrically about bizarre, yet entirely credible, cases of common, though poorly understood, compulsions. This book will go a long way in educating the general public, as well as professionals, with its state-of-the-art information about assessment, risk factors, and treatment of these conditions. (Donald W. Black, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa)
- Obscuring personal details, an expert on impulse control disorders writes of patients. ... Hard to beat the first essay. (Vancouver Sun / New Brunswick Reader)
- Tells stories inspired by memorable patients. ... Taking the reader from initial contact through the stages of the doctor-patient relationship. (Times Higher Ed Supplement)
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Impulse Control Disorders on Amazon
In the last decade, much needed attention and research has been focused on the group of psychiatric conditions termed "impulse control disorders" or ICDs. Pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, kleptomania, hypersexuality, Internet "addiction," among other disorders, are characterized by a recurrent urge to perform a repetitive behavior that is gratifying in the moment but causes significant long-term distress and disability. Despite the high rate of co-morbidity with obsessive compulsive disorder, ICDs are now clearly distinguished from these disorders with a unique clinical approach for diagnosis and treatment. A wide array of psychopharmacologic and psychotherapeutic options is now available for treating these disorders. Drs. Elias Aboujaoude and Lorrin M. Koran have compiled the world's foremost experts in ICD research and treatment to create a comprehensive book on the frequency, evolution, treatment, and related public policy, public health, forensic, and medical issues of these disorders. This is the first book to bring together medical and social knowledge bases related to impulse control disorders.
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recent talks and events
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Invited by Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services.
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at the Onassis Cultural Center, Athens, Greece.
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Posts
- Jul 14, 14
Can an intervention inspired by, or at least using the same tools as, addictive video games be therapeutic? Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy, or VRET, is here, and it has more than a few things in common with World of Warcraft.
- Feb 16, 14
The medical and psychiatric profession, like the fashion industry, is prone to producing fashion victims. Diagnoses come and go, sometimes more as a function of taste than a research-proven change in their true frequency. Diagnostic guides like the DSM have more in common with Vogue than is comfortable to admit.
- Nov 14, 13
Plagiarism is hardly just a classroom epidemic. It is a copying-and-pasting, news-regurgitating, meme-propagating culture, and we are all partaking.
- Jul 24, 13
The brutal "state of nature" feared by philosophers is reborn online. The real life consequences are calling for desperate measures that will curtail anonymity, freedom and much of what we like about the Internet.
- Apr 16, 13
Body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, is a serious appearance-based affliction. BDD sufferers feel unbearably ugly, and little you can say can change their minds. However, when BDD affects a patient's loved one, as when a patient starts believing that a child or spouse is unbearably ugly, the diagnosis takes on a new meaning and new toll.
- Jan 13, 13
Why would an otherwise healthy woman needlessly worry about stomping a baby to death?
- Oct 30, 12
We live by a new and blurred calendar. One consequence of the digital revolution is the explosive growth in productivity. Another is that we are now constantly on call for work. The lines that separated weekends from weekdays, “eight to five” from the rest of the twenty-four-hour cycle, and workdays from holidays or vacations now feel antiquated.
- Jul 27, 12
The Internet has proven utterly incapable of self-policing, and some external enforcer is needed if a site wants to maintain a minimum of civility among its members.
- Apr 27, 12
Not long ago, the mention of “bath salts” may have conjured up scenes of pampering and ultra-relaxation, perhaps in a spa setting or a five-star resort. More and more, however, bath salts are the street name for a new family of synthetic chemicals that people are getting high on, including mephedrone, pyrovalerone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone.
- Apr 13, 12
Love blossoms in the strangest places, and there is something wonderfully life-affirming about that.
- Sep 27, 11
War casualty: a psychoanalyst is muted for the crime of treating a traumatized population.
- Sep 08, 11
if grieving feels simple, easy or more efficient online, then maybe we are diminishing the process somehow.
- Aug 28, 11
We trusted him with nothing less than our brains, allowing ourselves to become physiologically hooked on one genius product after another. What to do now when the "fix" starts yielding less and less of a "high"? Where do we flock? Who do we ping? What do we download?
- Aug 01, 11
We used to want to keep up with the Joneses. Now, it's our online alter egos we are competing with. Could our new relationship with money be contributing to our economic woes?
- Feb 16, 11
More than ever, the Internet and "personal media" are putting us in the driver's seat, and that is making us more narcissistic.
- Dec 27, 10
How our real life persona increasingly resembles that of our avatar...
- Oct 14, 10
By all accounts, Tyler Clementi, the 18-year-old Rutgers freshman who jumped to his death after his roommate streamed a video of him having sex with another man, followed appropriate—in retrospect perhaps old-fashioned—dorm etiquette. To avoid surprises, the shy music major would ask to have the room to himself for specified blocks of time when he planned an intimate meeting.
- Sep 24, 10
Much has been said about how digital media are changing how we write. Not surprisingly, reading is also changing. Eye-tracking experiments suggest that online reading does not progress in any “logical” way but unfolds like a giant-font letter “F” superimposed on the web page.
- Jan 31, 10
Do you worry that personal information that your doctor types into your electronic medical chart will have the same level of privacy as your Facebook status updates? Privacy is passe, but how about for your health record?
- Oct 21, 09
All learning starts with the ability to focus and heed a teacher’s command to “pay attention.” Yet kids, like many of us, are showing a classroom attention span that is increasingly like their attention span on Facebook: Many seem to be exquisitely distractible and unable to focus on Mrs.
- Aug 24, 09
The Psychiatrist as Barista: Can We Caffeinate Our Anxiety Away?
- Jul 20, 09
We are accustomed to people allowing the less attractive features of their personalities to blossom online. Lewd, impulsive and antisocial behavior becomes irresistible when potential perpetrators are shielded by secrecy and online anonymity.
- Jul 10, 09
Brain imaging studies are showing that a form of therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy produces changes in the brain that are similar to what Prozac-like drugs do. What does this tell us about how psychotherapy works?
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interviews
- print / online
- Newsweek (Jul 7, 2012)
- Slate (Jul 25, 2012)
- NY Times (Jun 7, 2010)
- Al Jazeera (Feb 17, 2012)
- Wall Street Journal (Oct 24, 2006)
- Wall Street Journal (Dec 6, 2011)
- London Daily Mail (Apr 19, 2011)
- Time Magazine (Aug 5, 2011)
- CBS Moneywatch (Aug 2, 2011)
- ABC News (Jan 27, 2011)
- London Sunday Times / Calcutta Telegraph (Mar 21, 2011)
- Psychology Today
- Psychology Today (May 3, 2011)
- Health Magazine (Mar 9, 2009)
- Los Angeles Times (Feb 19, 2007)
- SF Chronicle (Dec 15, 2003)
- SF Chronicle (Dec 10, 2006)
- SF Chronicle (Nov 15, 2009)
- SF Chronicle (Apr 13, 2011)
- Boston Globe (Jun 8, 2006)
- Philadelphia Inquirer (Dec 20, 2004)
- Washington Post (Nov 14, 2006)
- BBC Focus Magazine
- Stanford Magazine
- Stanford School of Medicine SCOPE Blog (Aug 27, 2012)
- Stanford School of Medicine SCOPE Blog
- Forum of Fargo-Moorehead
radio & television- WNYC Radio, Brian Lehrer Show (Feb 18, 2011)
- San Francisco ABC, 7Live (Feb 7, 2011)
- National Public Radio, Marketplace (Feb 10, 2011)
- Kirkus Reviews, Question & Answer (Feb 9, 2011)
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articles
- articles, podcasts and more by Dr. AboujaoudeChronicle of Higher Education (October 7, 2010)
San Francisco Chronicle (April 27, 2008)
UC Press podcast
Harvard Business Review (February 7, 2011)
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speaking
Americans are spending a shocking amount of time logged on and plugged in. Stanford University psychiatrist Dr. Elias Aboujaoude conducted the largest study to date on Internet addiction and has spent years treating patients whose lives have been disturbed by their cyber lifestyle. Aboujaoude's talk is a penetrating examination of the effects of the new virtual world and what he calls the "big social experiment" we are engaged in online.
In the virtual world, we come alive as distinct beings: more confident and efficient, but also more aggressive, impulsive, and child-like. This new self, which Aboujaoude dubs our "e-personality," manifests itself in every curt email we send, emoticon we draw, Facebook "friend" we make, and "buy now" button we click.
Too potent to be confined online, however, those e-personality traits seep offline. There is a constant back-and-forth between our online and offline lives. The rudeness we are capable of in our e-mails and the lack of judgment we show in our online purchases and sexual hookups do not stay "there."
Rather, they bleed into our real lives, leading to the propagation, offline, of undesirable personality traits such as impatience, immoderation, impoliteness, and impulsivity. For example, how does easy access to Internet pornography affect our sex and love lives? Does the fact that we have 300 superficial Facebook "friends" make us less likely to invest time and energy nurturing deeper, offline, friendships? Does the Internet enrich us with its surfeit of information, or could it also provide a false base of knowledge upon which we try to diagnose ourselves and fix whatever ails us? Does the immediate gratification promised by the Internet, and the fast pace of online transactions, lead us to become speed-obsessed in real life and unable to enjoy a down moment? And what of the permanence of the Internet and the fact that so much of our personal information is easily accessible by anyone on the Web? Does this affect the way we behave in our dealings with others and make us paranoid about sharing more, like "the world knows enough about me already"?
The end result of interacting with the virtual world is a "whole new you," as countless products that have nothing to do with technology often promise but, unlike the Internet, almost never deliver. Yet foreign as it may seem, it is still you, virtually speaking, and you still own it and own its consequences – that our virtual half has a mind of its own is hardly a good enough defense when it gets us in trouble. That is why it is imperative that we contemplate our new psychology, even as the virtual world, a contemplation-averse medium, may be slowly compromising the skills we need to fully assess its impact on our lives.
How are our day-to-day reality and sense of ourselves changing as a function of our online browsing? The author of the upcoming Virtually You, Aboujaoude uses examples from his reseach and clinical and personal experience to answer this question, highlighting how real life is being reconfigured in the image of a chat room and how, more and more, we resemble our avatar.
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scientific publications
- Shigenaga MK, Aboujaoude EN, Chen Q, Ames BN. Assays of Oxidative DNA Damage Biomarkers in Nulear DNA and Biological Fluids by High Performane Liquid Chromatography with Electro-Chemical detection. Methods in Enzymology. 1994;234: 16-33.
Aboujaoude E. Meeting at the Border: An Overview of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Resident Reporter. 2001;6:13-18.
Aboujaoude E. The Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross: A Sane Asylum in the Middle East. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2002;159(12):1982.
Aboujaoude E, Chuong H, Koran LM. A One Year Naturalistic Follow Up of Patients with Compulsive Shopping Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2003;64(8):946-950.
Aboujaoude E, Gamel N, Koran LM. Overview of Kleptomania and Phenomenological Description of Forty Patients. Primary Care Companion, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2004;6:244-247.
Aboujaoude E, Gamel N, Koran LM. A Case of Kleptomania Correlating With Premenstrual Dysphoria. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2004;65(5):725-726.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Bullock KD, Franz B, Gamel N, Elliott M. Double-blind Treatment with Oral Morphine in Treatment-resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2005;66(3):353-359.
Koran LM, Gamel N, Chuong H, Smith E, Aboujaoude E. Mirtazapine for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: An Open-label Trial Followed by Double-blind Discontinuation. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2005;66(4):515-520.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Ward H, Shapira NA, Sallee FR, Gamel N, Elliott M. Pulse-loaded Intravenous Clomipramine in Treatment-resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 2006;26(1):79-83.
Aboujaoude E, Koran LM, Gamel N. Potential Markers for Problematic Internet Use: A Telephone Survey of 2513 Adults. CNS Spectrums. 2006;11(10):750-755.
Aboujaoude E, Koran LM. Prevalence Underestimated in Problematic Internet Use Study. (Response to Dr. Jerald J. Block.) CNS Spectrums. 2006;12:14-15.
Koran LM, Faber RJ, Aboujaoude E, Large MD, Serpe RT. Estimated Prevalence of Compulsive Buying Behavior in the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2006;163(10):1806-1812.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Solvason B, Gamel N, Smith E. Escitalopram for Compulsive Buying Disorder: A Double-blind Discontinuation Study. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 2007;27(2):225-227.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Gamel N. Escitalopram Treatment of Kleptomania: An Open-label Trial Followed by Double-blind Discontinuation. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2007;68(3):422-427.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Gamel N. Duloxetine Treatment of Dysthymia and Double Depression: An Open-label Trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2007;68(5):761-765.
Aboujaoude E, Koran LM: Nonparaphilic Sexual Disorders in Clinical Handbook of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Related Problems. Edited by Abramowitz J, McKay D, and Taylor S. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 257-269.
Aboujaoude E, Barr JJ, Gamel N. Memantine Augmentation in Treatment-resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: An Open-label Trial. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 2009;29(1):51-55.
Aboujaoude E, Koran LM: Fluvoxamine in Textbook of Psychopharmacology, Fourth Edition. Edited by Schatzberg A and Nemeroff CB. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2009, pp. 353-361.
Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Gamel N. Double-Blind Study of Dextroamphetamine Versus Caffeine Augmentation for Treatment-Resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2009;70(11):1530-5.
Keuthen NJ, Koran LM, Aboujaoude E, Large MD, Serpe RT. The Prevalence of Pathological Skin Picking in U.S. Adults. Comprehensive Psychiatry. 2010; 51(2):183-186.
Aboujaoude E. Problematic Internet Use: An Overview. Accepted for publication in 2010 World Psychiatry.
Aboujaoude E and Koran LM (eds): Impulse Control Disorders. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
