The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship of Internet addiction (IA) severity with alexithymia, temperament, and character dimensions of personality in university students while controlling for the effect of depression and anxiety. A total of 319 university students from two conservative universities in Ankara volunteered for the study. Students were investigated using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Internet Addiction Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Of the university students enrolled in the study, 12.2 percent (n=39) were categorized into the moderate/high IA group (IA 7.2 percent, high risk 5.0 percent), 25.7 percent (n=82) were categorized into the mild IA group, and 62.1 percent (n=198) were categorized into the group without IA. Results revealed that the rate of moderate/high IA group membership was higher in men (20.0 percent) than women (9.4 percent). Alexithymia, depression, anxiety, and novelty seeking (NS) scores were higher; whereas self-directedness (SD) and cooperativeness (C) scores were lower in the moderate/high IA group. The severity of IA was positively correlated with alexithymia, whereas it was negatively correlated with SD. The "difficulty in identifying feelings" and "difficulty in describing feelings" factors of alexithymia, the low C and high NS dimensions of personality were associated with the severity of IA. The direction of this relationship between alexithymia and IA, and the factors that may mediate this relationship are unclear. Nevertheless, university students exhibiting high alexithymia and NS scores, along with low character scores (SD and C) should be closely monitored for IA.

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Aim:The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence and correlates of dissociative disorders among patients with drug dependency. Methods:The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) was used to screen 104 consecutive patients at an addiction treatment center. Thirty-seven patients who had scores Ն30 were compared with 21 patients who scored <10 on the DES. Both groups were then evaluated using the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule and the Structured Clinical Interview for Dissociative Disorders (SCID-D). The interviewers were blind to the DES scores.Results: Twenty-seven patients (26.0%) had a dissociative disorder according to the SCID-D. Dissociative patients were younger than the non-dissociative group. History of suicide attempt and/or childhood emotional abuse was significant predictors of a dissociative disorder. The majority (59.3%) of dissociative drug users reported that dissociative experiences had existed prior to substance use. More patients in the dissociative disorder than in the nondissociative group stopped their treatment prematurely. Conclusion:A considerable proportion of drug users have a dissociative disorder, which may also interfere with treatment process. The relatively young age of this subgroup of patients and frequent reports of childhood emotional abuse underline potential preventive benefits of early intervention among adolescents with developmental trauma history and dissociative psychopathology.