Abstract

CRUZADO DIAZ, Lizardo; MATOS RETAMOZO, Luis  and  KENDALL FOLMER, Rommy. Internet addiction: Clinical and epidemiological profile of inpatients at a national mental health institute. Rev Med Hered [online]. 2006, vol.17, n.4, pp.196-205. ISSN 1018-130X.

Objective: To describe clinical and epidemiological characteristics of inpatients with "internet addiction" diagnosis at Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental Honorio Delgado - Hideyo Noguchi, since the opening of hospitalization service in the year 2001 until February 2006. Material and methods: It is a descriptive, retrospective and transversal study: we reviewed 30 clinical registers and patients absolved a brief survey during controls after discharge. Results: Average age was 18.3 ± 3.8 years old. The most frequent were antisocial personality traits (40%). Three patients suffered pulmonar tuberculosis during their addiction. There were poor familiar functioning histories in 80 % and familiar psychiatric background in 56.7% of patients respectively. 83.3 % of patients began using the internet at least two years before hospital admision and 50 % remained on-line for more than 6 hours a day. 90 % of patients primarily devoted themselves to on-line games. The principal symptoms were irritability (80%) and decrease in academic achievement (76.7%). The major comorbility was found with affective disorders (56.7%). Six (20%) had ideation or suicide attempts. Thirteen (43.3%) had the excessive use of video games as a background. Conclusions: Our inpatients with "internet addiction" are characterized by their young age, long time of daily use of internet, predominance of online games and high frecuency of psychopathic behaviors. Their addiction ended up in important personal deterioration, of academic skills and family relationships. Prospective studies are required to better point out the characteristics of this emerging pathology.(Rev Med Hered 2006;17:196-205).

Keywords : Internet; computer; addiction.

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