title: Impact of addiction to internet on a number of psychiatric symptoms in students of isfahan universities, iran, 2010.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to investigate the impact of internet addiction on some psychiatric symptoms among university students.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 students selected via quota sampling from universities in Isfahan, Iran. Participants completed demographic questionnaire, Young Diagnostic Questionnaire, Internet Addiction Test and Symptom Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R). Finally, the means of psychiatric symptoms of internet addicted and non-addicted subjects were compared. Also, t-test and multivariate analysis of covariance were used through SPSS(16) software for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean±standard deviation (SD) of psychiatric symptoms such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, aggression (hostility), phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation and psychoticism in the addicted group were 11.27 ± 6.66, 14.05 ± 7.91, 10.5 ± 6.20, 15.61 ± 8.88, 10.77 ± 5.52, 6.77 ± 4.88, 6.05 ± 4.47, 7.61 ± 4.28, and 9.66 ± 6.87, respectively, and in the non-addicted group were 6.99 ± 6.42, 7.49 ± 5.23, 5.46 ± 4.95, 9.27 ± 7.92, 6.35 ± 6.69, 3.57 ± 3.35, 2.41 ± 2.79, 5.47 ± 4.1, and 5.29 ± 4.95, respectively. There were significant differences between the means of psychiatric symptoms in all SCL-90-R subscales and Global Severity Index, Positive Symptom Distress Index, Positive Symptom Total in the addicted and non-addicted individuals (P<0.05). Also, internet addiction (with controlling sex variable) seemed to affect psychiatric symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Psychiatrists and psychologists involved in the field of mental health need to be well informed about mental problems due to internet addiction, such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and job and educational dissatisfaction.
authors.affiliation: School of Management and Medical Informatics, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyed Salman
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alaghemandan
authors.forename: Mohammadreza Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Maracy
authors.forename: Fereshte
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jannatifard
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eslami
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferdosi