Prevalence of Problematic use of Internet and Social Media among Egyptian High School Students and its Psychiatric Co-Morbidities

Abstract

egarding Internet addiction, it has been questioned whether people become addicted to the platform or to the content of the Internet (Griffiths, 1999). Recently, because of the high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms, depressive disorders, suicidal ideation, interpersonal conflicts, and aggressive behavior, correlated with internet addiction chiefly among adolescents, it has been considered as an important social issue in various countries especially in adolescents since adults are less vulnerable to Internet addiction in comparison to adolescents (Ko, 2009; Arısoy, 2009; Sanders, 2000). Globally, it has been estimated that the prevalence of problematic internet use (PIU) among adolescents and young adults has been displayed to range from 0.9% till 38% (Leung, 2004). Our study is considered comparative observational cross sectional study aiming at assessing the prevalence of Problematic Internet Use (PIU), Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), Social media use among adolescents represented by High school students, and the pattern of usage of internet, and correlating them with psychiatric comorbidities.