Clinical Research Directory

tDCS for Social Media Addiction

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation, can reduce "craving" and problematic levels of social media/internet use in university students. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does active tDCS reduce craving to use social media during the intervention period compared with sham stimulation and no stimulation? * Does active tDCS reduce internet/social media addiction severity (measured with the Internet Addiction Test, IAT) compared with sham stimulation and no stimulation, and are any effects still present at follow-up? Researchers will compare three groups-active tDCS, sham tDCS (a simulation where stimulation is stopped after the first seconds), and a control group (no stimulation)-to see whether changes are due to tDCS rather than placebo effects or time. Participants will: * Complete an initial screening and baseline questionnaires (a sociodemographic questionnaire and the IAT). * Be randomly assigned to one of three groups: active tDCS, sham tDCS, or control (no stimulation). * Complete the IAT again after the intervention and again about 5 weeks later (follow-up), along with questions about social media use habits. During intervention, participants in active tDCS and sham tDCS will: * Attend 10 sessions over 2 consecutive weeks (Monday-Friday), with each session lasting about 30 minutes; mobile phone use is not allowed during sessions. * Rate craving on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at the start and end of each session. This study will be conducted with university students in the Greater Lisbon area and will follow double-blind procedures for the active vs sham conditions (participants and researchers will not know the assigned condition until the end of the study).

Prevalence of Behavioral Addiction and Its Relation With Psychological Disturbance

Internet usage has increased greatly. It is expected to be more than 4 billion by the end of this year. About 80% of them spend most of their internet time on social media, and are expected by 2026 to be about 50% of the total population to use social media at least once a month. The internet is mainly used to connect with friends, relatives, learn new skills, or for entertainment, such as video gaming. However, with this increasing usage, internet addiction can easily increase. Internet addiction or pathological internet use is defined as uncontrolled, excessive use of it, with uncontrolled time consuming that can cause distress and impairment. The prevalence of internet addiction varied between regions. A study in the seven countries in Europe reported a prevalence of addiction among adolescents to be 1%, and an additional 12.7% at risk of having addiction. In Turkey, a recent cross-sectional study found a prevalence of 18.3%. In the Middle East, the prevalence varied greatly from 0.9% to 33% among adolescents. Additionally, internet video gaming is another addictive problem that can affect adolescents. A previous meta-analysis showed that gaming addiction prevalence ranged from 0.9% to 19.9%, with males being higher than females. Also, another study showed a prevalence of about 8.4% among Thailand medical students. On the other hand, overuse of the internet can lead to an increase in problematic pornography use. Another study found a significant association between increased usage of the internet and pornography addiction (P value: \<0.001). Additionally, previous studies showed a prevalence of porn addiction ranging from 3.2% to 16.6%. Also, a negative correlation between education level and porn addiction was observed. All these behavioral addictions increase depression, anxiety, and stress for addicts. Several cross-sectional studies have assessed the positive correlation between either internet, gaming, or porn addiction, and an increase in anxiety and depression. However, to our knowledge, no single study has assessed these three addictive behaviors together with depression, anxiety, and stress in Arab countries. Rational Medical students, in particular, use the internet frequently. Students use it in training, faculty assignments, research projects, and so on, which can make them depend greatly on the internet. This potentially can increase their addiction to the internet, subsequently increasing their addiction to video gaming and porn addiction. In the Middle East, few studies have tried to assess the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with increased depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students. Despite that, there is a lack of studies on gaming addiction and porn addiction. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of internet addiction alongside video gaming and porn addiction among medical students and interns in the Middle East (MENA region). Also, the study aimed to assess the relationship of these three addictive behaviors with each other and their relationship with increased stress, anxiety, and depression among this population.

Digital Parenting Education: Impact on Mothers' Social Media Use and Children's Tech Attitudes

The aim of the study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of mothers regarding social media addiction and their children's technology use. The research is a randomized controlled trial. The universe of the research consists of all family health center affiliated with the Artvin Provincial Health Directorate, and the sample consists of mothers with healthy preschool children (3-6 years old) registered in family health center No. 1, determined by drawing lots. The sample size was determined as 152 participants, with 76 assigned to the experimental group and 76 to the control group. The digital parenting training to be given to mothers consists of 8 sessions of 20 minutes each. The digital parenting training content, presentation and brochure were prepared according to the Ministry of Family and Social Services' "Parental Guide for Protecting Children from Digital Risks", the Ministry of Health's "Technology Addiction Parental Guide" and the Presidency's Directorate of Communications' "Social Media Usage Guide". Opinions of 10 experts were received for the prepared training presentation and brochure. As a result of the evaluation, descriptive statistics; number (N) and percentage (%) for variables between groups, mean, standard deviation (SD), minimum (min), maximum (max) values for numerical data and significance level will be stated as p\<0.05.

Digital Addiction Among University Students

The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of digital media addiction by investigating the prevalence of digital addiction among university students and examining the relationship between variables such as body awareness, physical activity levels, hand grip strength, upper extremity function and pain-dash, quality of life, depression, stress, anxiety, sleep quality, and cognitive levels and digital addiction.