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Volume 2
Journal of Psychiatry and Mental Health Research
Psychiatry Nursing & Psychiatry 2019
June 17-18, 2019
Page 16
Psychiatry & Mental health Nursing
Psychiatry and Mental Health
June 17-18, 2019 | Rome, Italy
4
th
World Congress on
2
nd
Global Experts Meeting on
&
Giuseppe Bersani
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
J Psych and Mental Health Research, Volume 2
Problematic internet use in psychiatric patients: A complex evolution of specific diseases symptom
profile?
T
he use of Internet is a global phenomenon that now affects all areas
of private and public life. Although it is commonly accepted that
it is aimed at increasing general well-being and represents a powerful
tool to support the majority of social and work relations, aberrations
of its use grow in parallel with its general development. The still not
precise definition of Problematic Internet Use (PIU) includes behavioral
addictive behaviors such as internet addiction, online gambling, online
shopping, online sexual addiction, etc., which are in themselves areas of pathological conduct. Even the
use of the internet for the detection of progressively new and unrelated to the normal circuits of drug
addiction substances of abuse is rapidly increasing. The dark web is the preferred location for illegal
online pharmacies, as well as other networks linked to antisocial and criminal activities. The different
forms of PIU often constitute the only or principal pathological course of people otherwise exempt
from defined mental disorders. But recently there is a marked increase of PIU in patients primarily
affected by psychiatric disorders, both personality disorders and specific mental disorders such as
psychotic disorders, depressive or bipolar mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, etc. The
use of internet often produces new ideational contents, alterations of the sense of reality, relational
problems or behavioral compulsions in patients in which it often has a strong symptomatic value and
can powerfully modify the basic clinical picture, as well as its response to treatments. The emergence of
new forms of psychopathology as a result of the meeting of previous mental disorder and PIU seems to
be a phenomenon deserving of the greatest clinical, legal and social attention.
Biography
Giuseppe Bersani is associate Professor, qualified Full Professor and Chair of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine of the
Sapienza University of Rome, Head of the University Clinical Unit of the Fiorini Hospital of Terracina, Guest Professor of the Beijing University
of Chinese Medicine. He has worked for many years in the fields of the psychiatric clinic, clinical neuroscience, clinical psychopharmacology
and addictions, with particular reference to addictions to Novel Psychoactive Substances and behavioral addictions. On these issues he
personally organized numerous international conferences. He is the author of 192 articles indexed on Scopus.
giuseppe.bersani@uniroma1.it