P-58 - Abusive use of Internet: Psychiatric Comorbidities

Abstract

The nosology of ‘Abusive use of Internet’ is under discussion and it seems that it could be considered a separate psychiatric entity. Taxons as “Internet addiction”, “problematic internet use” and “excessive internet use” (and others) are ambiguous and further research is necessary to validate these entities. During this discussion a pile of research was built of many co-morbid psychiatric conditions that seem to underlie, co-occur or to be triggered by this maladaptive behavior. As we'll show, substance abuse and dependence and pathological gambling share extensive research. It would be easy to associate this new addiction to all previous knowledge available but critical differences have been found. Evidence will be given that there are specificities in the presentation, treatment goals and response to interventions in need to be considered. Personality traits as introversion, psychoticism, shyness, hostility, and lack of impulse control are all, to different extent, linked to overuse of the Internet. Mood disorders have been extensively linked to Internet addiction and a bi-directional causality model was proposed. It is still an open discussion whether depressive mood and depressive temperament are causes or simply exacerbating factors for Internet addiction. We'll further provide interesting correlations of other psychiatric disturbances. This poster will provide a review of comorbidities related to internet addiction and will be followed by further reviews on other dimensions of this entity.