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Prevalence of internet addiction: a pilot study in a group of Italian students
P.6.f. Addiction − Other (clinical) like ayahuasca or Psicotria viridis and psilocybin and psilocin are the main components of hallucinogenic mushrooms [1]. Noncontrolled tryptamines effects are considered similar to those of the already controlled tryptamines such as psilocybin or DMT [1]. These molecules are similar to regulated psychoactives and are offered as a non-illegal alternative to them [2]. However, there is not enough scientific evidence assessing potential differences in their epidemiology and potential differences. Objectives: (1) To evaluate the presence of psychoactive tryptamines among samples delivered to and analyzed by the Spanish harm reduction service Energy Control, (2) to compare the amount of regulated and non-regulated tryptamines delivered and (3) to compare the results of the analysis. Materials and Methods: All samples delivered as simple psychoactive tryptamines from 2006 to 2015 delivered to Energy Control were analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of the samples was then conducted. Results: From 25,296 samples delivered during the years of study 436 (1.72%) were delivered as hallucinogenic tryptamines. Out of the total 436 tryptamines samples, 232 (53.21%) were non-regulated tryptamines. Analysis revealed that 150 samples (64.7%) contained one single unadulterated substance; 57 samples (24.6%) contained the substance delivered plus another psychoactive tryptamine; 5 samples (2.2%) contained other substances different from tryptamines and in 5 samples (2.2%) no active substances were found. Out of the total 436 tryptamines samples, 204 (46.79%) were regulated tryptamines. The analysis revealed that 128 samples (62.7%) contained one single unadulterated substance; 43 samples (21.1%) contained the substance delivered plus another psychoactive tryptamine or other expected substances from processing; 7 samples (3.4%) contained other substances different from tryptamines and in 22 samples (10.8%) no active substances were found. Conclusion: During the whole period of study a slightly higher number of non-regulated psychoactive tryptamines was delivered. Percentages of samples containing only one unadulterated substance are consistent with other national studies on other NPS using convenience samples [3]. However, very few substances delivered as tryptamines were found to contain substances different from psychoactive tryptamines leading to think that sources are highly reliable regarding the content. Results of analysis of new regulated tryptamines was more consistent with the sample delivered than that of classical tryptamines. Further monitoring of these substances should be maintained in order to assess future trends. It would be interesting in further studies to analyze the different effects of the different hallucinogenic tryptamines molecules in order to evaluate the implications of samples adulteration. References [1] Farr´e, M., Galindo, L., Torrens, M., 2015. Addiction to Hallucinogens, Dissociatives, Designer Drugs and “Legal Highs” on Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives. Springer, Berlin. Chapter 27, 567–596. [2] Tittarelli, R., Mannocchi, G., Pantano, F. & Romolo, F.S., 2015. Recreational Use, Analysis and Toxicity of Tryptamines. Curr. Neuropharmacol. 13, 26−46. [3] Caudevilla-G´alligo, F., Ventura, M., Indave Ruiz, B.I. & Forn´ıs, I., 2013. Presence and composition of cathinone derivatives in drug samples taken from a drug test service in Spain (2010–2012). Hum. Psychopharmacol. 28, 341−4. Disclosure statement: *No conflict of interest is reported. Supported in part by grants of Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (RTA
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RD12/0028/0009), and The European Commission (Drug Prevention and Information Programme 2014−16, contract no.: JUST/2013/DPIP/AG/4823, EU-MADNESS project). Liliana Galindo is a Rio Hortega fellowship (ISCIII; CM14/00111).
P.6.f.009 Prevalence of internet addiction: a pilot study in a group of Italian students F. Mucci1 ° , F. Vanelli1 , N. Renda2 , S. Baroni1 , A. Piccinni1 , D. Marazziti1 1 Universit`a di Pisa, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale - Sezione di Psichiatria, Pisa, Italy; 2 University of Palermo, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences - Section of Psychiatry, Palermo, Italy Introduction: Internet is an essential element as an essential element of modern life, given the constantly increasing number of users and the wide spread of its services during the last decades. On the other hand, this trend led towards to a growing concern about the percentage of excessive utilization [1]. Internet Addiction (IA) is considered part of the so-called “new technologies addictions” group, that in turn belongs to a wider, novel group of abnormal behaviors defined “no-drug addictions” or “behavioral addictions”. Similarly to substance abuse, there is the risk either to arouse symptoms like craving, tolerance and habituation either to develop a full-fledged addiction to the internet [2]. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the current pattern of Internet use and eventually of IA, as well as their main characteristics, in a group of high-school students from Calabria, a Southern Italian region. Methods: Five-hundred students (42% boys, 58% girls, mean age SD ± 16.23 years) from a Liceo Classico in the province of Catanzaro volunteered for this study. A specific questionnaire, consisting of a smaller version of one implemented by us [2], was developed following others used amongst student populations of different countries. In particular, this version consisted of 45 items with 5 possible answers ranging between “never” and “very often” on a Likert scale, taking an average period of 15 minutes to be completed. Results: The questionnaire was presented to 540 students and was accepted, with only 40 refusals to complete it, and 500 returning fulfilled. Most of the young subjects interviewed owned a smartphone with Internet, and claimed to spend more time online than at the beginning. The time spent online appeared to be increasing: probably this trend could be partially determined by the wide use of smartphones. Nearly everybody had an active account in a least one social network, the most preferred being Facebook, and Instagram. Just a little withdrawal from social relationships or other forms of aggregation and from sport activities emerged in this group. However, a limitation of this study is that the sample was quite homogeneous, as the students belonged to the same area, with similar life-style and to the same high school. Conclusions: Although about 10% of examined students presented IA symptoms, our findings cannot be considered representative of the total high-school population. In any case, these results underline the need of further investigation and awareness of this increasing trend, in particular amongst teenagers. In fact, many underestimated, vague, and other unspecific neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as alterations of sleep-wake pattern, chronic fatigue, headache, visual problems, carpal tunnel syndrome and eventually anxiety or depression may be underlying to an unrecognized condition of IA. Schools and families should
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be involved in increasing awareness on the possible risks related to excessive Internet use, but politicians should also play their role. References [1] Kuss, D.J., Griffiths, M.D., 2012. Internet and gaming addiction: a systematic literature review of neuroimaging studies. Brain Science 2, 3, 347–374. [2] Marazziti, D., Presta, S., Baroni, S., Silvestri, S., Dell’Osso, L., 2014. Behavioral addictions: a novel challenge for psychopharmacology. CNS Spectrums 19, 6, 486–495.
and, perhaps, to a typical personality trait, that may be particularly related to the development of addictive and impulsive behaviors. In addition, these findings underline the positive correlation between PG severity and impulsivity. On the other hand, the present study presents the following limitations: firstly, only one questionnaire was used to assess impulsivity; secondly the sample size is relatively small; thirdly, 23 patients had comorbid psychiatric diseases characterized by elevated levels of impulsivity; finally, the sample was composed from men only so that we might not exclude a gender effect. Further studies, carried out in larger samples of both sexes are necessary to further investigate the interesting relationship between PG and impulsivity.
P.6.f.010 Impulsivity traits in pathological gambling References
F. Vanelli1 ° , F. Mucci1 , S. Baroni1 , A. Piccinni1 , D. Marazziti1 , A. Lombardi1 , V. Falaschi1 1 Universit`a di Pisa, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale - Sezione di Psichiatria, Pisa, Italy Introduction: Pathological gambling (PG) is a behavioral addictive disorder characterized by persistent and problematic gambling behaviors, in presence of impairment of self-regulation and impulsivity [1]. Impulsivity is widely supported by literature either in maintaining either in developing addictive behaviors and PG, as a result of an impairment of self-regulation and inhibitory control [2,3]. Aim: The aim of this study is to compare PG to impulsivity throughout the Barrat Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) questionnaire in a group of Italian outpatients, in order to further explore their appealing relation and, because of the lack of information in our country, to sensitize local public institutions, such as schools and universities about this problem that is of growing concern amongst our population. Methods: Fifty outpatients (all men) were recruited at the psychiatric outpatient ward of the University of Pisa. All of them had a diagnosis of PG, assessed throughout the structured clinical interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). None of them was diagnosed any severe physical illness. Twentythree of them had taken psychotropic drugs because of the presence of psychiatric disorders comorbidity (in particular five were suffering of panic disorder, four of generalized anxiety disorder, ten of bipolar disorder, two of them suffering from cannabis abuse and two of alcohol abuse). The sample was compared with a similar group of healthy control subjects, recruited amongst medical and nursing staff at the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnology, University of Pisa. South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) scale was used to assess the severity of PG. Results: PG patients reported significantly higher total score in BIS-11 than control subjects. In particular, the “motor impulsivity” and “cognitive complexity” scores were significantly higher in PG patients, as well as “motor” and “non-planning” impulsivity subscale scores. Interestingly, “self control” factor scores had a similar trend, though not significant. A positive and significant correlation was found between BIS-11 and SOGS total scores. Moreover, positive and significant correlations were detected between SOGS total score and attention and cognitive instability factor scores and the attentional and motor impulsivity subscale scores. Conclusions: Though this study is the first of this kind in Italy, these results not only corroborate the existence of the widely described association between impulsivity and PG, but also concur to the notion that impulsivity may represent a core element of PG
[1] Potenza, M.N., 2008. The neurobiology of pathological gambling and drug addiction: an overview and new findings. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 363, 3181–3189. [2] Blum, K., Braverman, E.R., Holder, J.M., Lubar, J.F., Monastra, V.J., Miller, D., Lubar, J.O., Chen, T.J., Comings, D.E, 2000. Reward deficiency syndrome: a biogenetic model for the diagnosis and treatment of impulsive, addictive, and compulsive behaviors. J Psychoactive Drugs 32, 1–112. [3] Forbush, K.T., Shaw, M., Graeber, M.A., Hovick, L., Meyer, V.J., Moser, D.J., Bayless, J., Watson, D., Black, D.W., 2008. Neuropsychological characteristics and personality traits in pathological gambling. CNS Spectr 13, 306–315.
P.6.f.011 New technologies and eating disorders G. Salazar de Pablo1 ° , J. San Martin McDonagh1 , S. Gomez Vallejo1 , I. Basurte Villamor1 , A. Del Rey-Mejias1 , F. Ferre Navarrete1 1 Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Mara˜non, Psychiatry, Madrid, Spain Purpose: It is difficult to define technology dependence. Few patients consult for this reason. Besides, DSM-5 does not consider it for the moment [1]. Nevertheless, it is an important issue nowadays and its prevalence is increasing progressively, as seen in every-day clinical practice [2,3]. We also see that women with eating disorders frequently have co-occurring impulsive behaviors including substance abuse [4] and behavioral addictions. Through our study we tried to join these two beliefs, considering new technologies as impulsive behaviors themselves, and search for new technology dependence in our patients with eating disorders. Methods: Participants for our study were 69 female outpatients (Mean age = 35.5 years; SD = 11.2) who fulfilled criteria for three main eating disorder diagnosis: Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating disorder (BED) and 43 female controls. We excluded women who did not complete the scales correctly. We used two different scales in a selfadministered way: Internet Dependence test (TDI) and Mobile Dependence Test (TDM). First we made a qualitative comparison among women with the three diagnosis establishing a cutoff value which helped us differ women with and without dependence to each technological device. The comparison between the groups was made by chi-square (c2 ) test. Then we made a quantitative comparison between women with eating disorders and women from the control group. This comparison was made by Student’s T test. Test were considered significant if p < 0.05. Results: 28% of our patients with BN had internet dependence, 21.7% of our patients with BED had internet dependence and 19% of our patients with AN had it. For Mobile dependence the results from our study were 17.4%, 18.18% and 0% respectively.
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RD12/0028/0009), and The European Commission (Drug Prevention and Information Programme 2014−16, contract no.: JUST/2013/DPIP/AG/4823, EU-MADNESS project). Liliana Galindo is a Rio Hortega fellowship (ISCIII; CM14/00111).
P.6.f.009 Prevalence of internet addiction: a pilot study in a group of Italian students F. Mucci1 ° , F. Vanelli1 , N. Renda2 , S. Baroni1 , A. Piccinni1 , D. Marazziti1 1 Universit`a di Pisa, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale - Sezione di Psichiatria, Pisa, Italy; 2 University of Palermo, Department of Experimental Biomedicine and Clinical Neurosciences - Section of Psychiatry, Palermo, Italy Introduction: Internet is an essential element as an essential element of modern life, given the constantly increasing number of users and the wide spread of its services during the last decades. On the other hand, this trend led towards to a growing concern about the percentage of excessive utilization [1]. Internet Addiction (IA) is considered part of the so-called “new technologies addictions” group, that in turn belongs to a wider, novel group of abnormal behaviors defined “no-drug addictions” or “behavioral addictions”. Similarly to substance abuse, there is the risk either to arouse symptoms like craving, tolerance and habituation either to develop a full-fledged addiction to the internet [2]. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the current pattern of Internet use and eventually of IA, as well as their main characteristics, in a group of high-school students from Calabria, a Southern Italian region. Methods: Five-hundred students (42% boys, 58% girls, mean age SD ± 16.23 years) from a Liceo Classico in the province of Catanzaro volunteered for this study. A specific questionnaire, consisting of a smaller version of one implemented by us [2], was developed following others used amongst student populations of different countries. In particular, this version consisted of 45 items with 5 possible answers ranging between “never” and “very often” on a Likert scale, taking an average period of 15 minutes to be completed. Results: The questionnaire was presented to 540 students and was accepted, with only 40 refusals to complete it, and 500 returning fulfilled. Most of the young subjects interviewed owned a smartphone with Internet, and claimed to spend more time online than at the beginning. The time spent online appeared to be increasing: probably this trend could be partially determined by the wide use of smartphones. Nearly everybody had an active account in a least one social network, the most preferred being Facebook, and Instagram. Just a little withdrawal from social relationships or other forms of aggregation and from sport activities emerged in this group. However, a limitation of this study is that the sample was quite homogeneous, as the students belonged to the same area, with similar life-style and to the same high school. Conclusions: Although about 10% of examined students presented IA symptoms, our findings cannot be considered representative of the total high-school population. In any case, these results underline the need of further investigation and awareness of this increasing trend, in particular amongst teenagers. In fact, many underestimated, vague, and other unspecific neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as alterations of sleep-wake pattern, chronic fatigue, headache, visual problems, carpal tunnel syndrome and eventually anxiety or depression may be underlying to an unrecognized condition of IA. Schools and families should
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be involved in increasing awareness on the possible risks related to excessive Internet use, but politicians should also play their role. References [1] Kuss, D.J., Griffiths, M.D., 2012. Internet and gaming addiction: a systematic literature review of neuroimaging studies. Brain Science 2, 3, 347–374. [2] Marazziti, D., Presta, S., Baroni, S., Silvestri, S., Dell’Osso, L., 2014. Behavioral addictions: a novel challenge for psychopharmacology. CNS Spectrums 19, 6, 486–495.
and, perhaps, to a typical personality trait, that may be particularly related to the development of addictive and impulsive behaviors. In addition, these findings underline the positive correlation between PG severity and impulsivity. On the other hand, the present study presents the following limitations: firstly, only one questionnaire was used to assess impulsivity; secondly the sample size is relatively small; thirdly, 23 patients had comorbid psychiatric diseases characterized by elevated levels of impulsivity; finally, the sample was composed from men only so that we might not exclude a gender effect. Further studies, carried out in larger samples of both sexes are necessary to further investigate the interesting relationship between PG and impulsivity.
P.6.f.010 Impulsivity traits in pathological gambling References
F. Vanelli1 ° , F. Mucci1 , S. Baroni1 , A. Piccinni1 , D. Marazziti1 , A. Lombardi1 , V. Falaschi1 1 Universit`a di Pisa, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale - Sezione di Psichiatria, Pisa, Italy Introduction: Pathological gambling (PG) is a behavioral addictive disorder characterized by persistent and problematic gambling behaviors, in presence of impairment of self-regulation and impulsivity [1]. Impulsivity is widely supported by literature either in maintaining either in developing addictive behaviors and PG, as a result of an impairment of self-regulation and inhibitory control [2,3]. Aim: The aim of this study is to compare PG to impulsivity throughout the Barrat Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) questionnaire in a group of Italian outpatients, in order to further explore their appealing relation and, because of the lack of information in our country, to sensitize local public institutions, such as schools and universities about this problem that is of growing concern amongst our population. Methods: Fifty outpatients (all men) were recruited at the psychiatric outpatient ward of the University of Pisa. All of them had a diagnosis of PG, assessed throughout the structured clinical interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). None of them was diagnosed any severe physical illness. Twentythree of them had taken psychotropic drugs because of the presence of psychiatric disorders comorbidity (in particular five were suffering of panic disorder, four of generalized anxiety disorder, ten of bipolar disorder, two of them suffering from cannabis abuse and two of alcohol abuse). The sample was compared with a similar group of healthy control subjects, recruited amongst medical and nursing staff at the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnology, University of Pisa. South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) scale was used to assess the severity of PG. Results: PG patients reported significantly higher total score in BIS-11 than control subjects. In particular, the “motor impulsivity” and “cognitive complexity” scores were significantly higher in PG patients, as well as “motor” and “non-planning” impulsivity subscale scores. Interestingly, “self control” factor scores had a similar trend, though not significant. A positive and significant correlation was found between BIS-11 and SOGS total scores. Moreover, positive and significant correlations were detected between SOGS total score and attention and cognitive instability factor scores and the attentional and motor impulsivity subscale scores. Conclusions: Though this study is the first of this kind in Italy, these results not only corroborate the existence of the widely described association between impulsivity and PG, but also concur to the notion that impulsivity may represent a core element of PG
[1] Potenza, M.N., 2008. The neurobiology of pathological gambling and drug addiction: an overview and new findings. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 363, 3181–3189. [2] Blum, K., Braverman, E.R., Holder, J.M., Lubar, J.F., Monastra, V.J., Miller, D., Lubar, J.O., Chen, T.J., Comings, D.E, 2000. Reward deficiency syndrome: a biogenetic model for the diagnosis and treatment of impulsive, addictive, and compulsive behaviors. J Psychoactive Drugs 32, 1–112. [3] Forbush, K.T., Shaw, M., Graeber, M.A., Hovick, L., Meyer, V.J., Moser, D.J., Bayless, J., Watson, D., Black, D.W., 2008. Neuropsychological characteristics and personality traits in pathological gambling. CNS Spectr 13, 306–315.
P.6.f.011 New technologies and eating disorders G. Salazar de Pablo1 ° , J. San Martin McDonagh1 , S. Gomez Vallejo1 , I. Basurte Villamor1 , A. Del Rey-Mejias1 , F. Ferre Navarrete1 1 Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Mara˜non, Psychiatry, Madrid, Spain Purpose: It is difficult to define technology dependence. Few patients consult for this reason. Besides, DSM-5 does not consider it for the moment [1]. Nevertheless, it is an important issue nowadays and its prevalence is increasing progressively, as seen in every-day clinical practice [2,3]. We also see that women with eating disorders frequently have co-occurring impulsive behaviors including substance abuse [4] and behavioral addictions. Through our study we tried to join these two beliefs, considering new technologies as impulsive behaviors themselves, and search for new technology dependence in our patients with eating disorders. Methods: Participants for our study were 69 female outpatients (Mean age = 35.5 years; SD = 11.2) who fulfilled criteria for three main eating disorder diagnosis: Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating disorder (BED) and 43 female controls. We excluded women who did not complete the scales correctly. We used two different scales in a selfadministered way: Internet Dependence test (TDI) and Mobile Dependence Test (TDM). First we made a qualitative comparison among women with the three diagnosis establishing a cutoff value which helped us differ women with and without dependence to each technological device. The comparison between the groups was made by chi-square (c2 ) test. Then we made a quantitative comparison between women with eating disorders and women from the control group. This comparison was made by Student’s T test. Test were considered significant if p < 0.05. Results: 28% of our patients with BN had internet dependence, 21.7% of our patients with BED had internet dependence and 19% of our patients with AN had it. For Mobile dependence the results from our study were 17.4%, 18.18% and 0% respectively.