Addiction

TOPIC

Addiction

Addiction

Addiction to substances such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs (including New Psychoactive Substances - NPS) and behavioral addictions (gambling, food, internet and new technologies, doping) are important risk factors for public health.

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) works to prevent and combat these addictions, contributes to the knowledge of phenomena from an epidemiological point of view, optimizes the pathways of diagnosis and treatment and the improvement of interventions through specific areas of research, as well as control, supervision, information, training and advice. It also advises through what is known as the Help line (telephone counseling and scientific information) on addictions and doping and offers support for improving the quality of performance of the National Health Service (NHS) pharmacology laboratories.

In particular, tobacco consumption is one of the major risk factors in the development of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Emerging phenomenon is also the intake of nicotine through next-generation tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Alcohol is the first substance capable of causing high social impact addiction. Drug addiction today is represented by the phenomenon of taking more classic abuse substances, including alcohol and new psychoactive substances.

Gambling disorder, food and internet addiction are behavioral addictions that in addition to causing clinically significant discomfort and/or disorders are a public health problem of increasing importance with a high impact in daily life.



Back Project Behavioral Addictions in Generation Z: Membership campaign

The National Center on Addiction and Doping of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), on behalf of the Anti-Drug Policies Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is starting the first study in Italy to estimate the prevalence of some risk behaviors to addiction (e.g. social media addiction, food addiction and internet gaming disorder) in young people between 11 and 17 years old.  

Information will also be collected on phenomena related to the use of social media such as cyberbullying, social challenges, sexting, morphing, doxxing. An exploratory study will also be conducted on parental knowledge with respect to the behaviour of adolescents in the phenomena investigated. 
 
The survey will be carried out approximately in October-November 2022, by completing an anonymous online questionnaire available on a National Center on Addiction and Doping web platform dedicated to schools. To facilitate and support the survey activities, participating schools will be able to use data collectors in the classroom or through remote support, in relation to the needs of the school. 
 
The administration of the questionnaire to students will take place during school hours and will require the student a commitment of about 30/40 minutes, and in any case not exceeding the single lesson hour. At the end of the project, the results will be returned to the school manager in the form of a synthetic report in which the main data emerged will be identified in aggregate form. 
 
The Project BEHAVIORAL ADDICTION IN GENERATION Z will be presented on 24 May 2022, at the Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, by the Minister for Youth Policies with responsibility for anti-drug policies, by the Head of the Anti-Drug Policies Department and by the President of the ISS. The event will be available in streaming but the institutes participating in the study can request participation in presence with a restricted representation. 
 
Schools interested in participating in the study or event on May 24 (in person or in streaming) can send an email to claudia.mortali@iss.it 

National centre for addiction and doping

Internet and new technologies

Topics

Dependencies Internet and new technologies

Elenco Argomenti