The Relationship of Smartphone Addiction and Alexithymia

Objective@#This study aims to evaluate whether smartphone addiction (SA) is associated with social media use and alexithymia levels in university students. @*Methods@#A group of 935 students aged between 18 and 45 years (509 females and 426 males) was recruited from different universities in Istanbul. SAs, alexithymia and social media use were assessed using the Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), and ad-hoc questions regarding social media use. @*Results@#The mean age of participants was 21.89±3.27 years and 509 of participants were female (54.4%). 455 (48.6%) participants were placed in the “SA” and 198 (21.2%) in the “alexithymia” categories. The study found a high level of positive correlation (p<0.001) between both subscale and total TAS-20 scores and SAS-SV scores. Gender (OR=1.496, 95% CI 1.117–2.002, p=0.007) and number of social media by participants (OR=1.221, 95% CI 1.134–1.315, p<0.001) and TAS (OR=1.074, 95% CI 1.059–1.090, p<0.001) were found to be an independent predictors for SA. @*Conclusion@#The study revealed a positive correlation between alexithymia and smartphone use severity, and alexithymia was a significant predictor of SA. Future studies focusing on the causal aspect of this relationship will be useful in planning strategies for treatment.

The Relationship of Smartphone Addiction and Alexithymia

Objective@#This study aims to evaluate whether smartphone addiction (SA) is associated with social media use and alexithymia levels in university students. @*Methods@#A group of 935 students aged between 18 and 45 years (509 females and 426 males) was recruited from different universities in Istanbul. SAs, alexithymia and social media use were assessed using the Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), and ad-hoc questions regarding social media use. @*Results@#The mean age of participants was 21.89±3.27 years and 509 of participants were female (54.4%). 455 (48.6%) participants were placed in the “SA” and 198 (21.2%) in the “alexithymia” categories. The study found a high level of positive correlation (p<0.001) between both subscale and total TAS-20 scores and SAS-SV scores. Gender (OR=1.496, 95% CI 1.117–2.002, p=0.007) and number of social media by participants (OR=1.221, 95% CI 1.134–1.315, p<0.001) and TAS (OR=1.074, 95% CI 1.059–1.090, p<0.001) were found to be an independent predictors for SA. @*Conclusion@#The study revealed a positive correlation between alexithymia and smartphone use severity, and alexithymia was a significant predictor of SA. Future studies focusing on the causal aspect of this relationship will be useful in planning strategies for treatment.

Epileptic seizure during anaesthesia induction with etomidate

In this report a 20-year-old male patient who had suffered tonic-clonic seizure after a single induction dose of etomidate until a bispectral index value of 60 is presented. Our best knowledge, this case is the first report of pure etomidate [with induction dose] induced generalized tonic clonic seizure proven with EEG. Anaesthesiologists should be careful against such a complication even in the induction stage of anaesthesia during etomidate use

Accompaniment of tourette syndrome and neuropsychiatric symptoms

Tourette syndrome [TS] is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics. Attention deficit, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality problems, and impulsivity may be associated with TS. Functional neuro-imaging studies indicate that the ventral striatum is the most affected brain area in TS. We report a case with TS who had cerebellar atrophy, cerebellar arachnoid cyst, bilateral congenital triangular alopecia, bilateral strabismus, and oxycephaly. The association among these symptoms and TS is rare, and the possible relationship of these symptoms should be investigated with further studies