Background: Increasing smartphone use has led to the introduction of smartphone addiction as a behavioral addiction with detrimental effects on health. This phenomenon has not been widely studied in the Indian context. This study assessed the rate of smartphone addiction in a sample of medical students, with a focus on its correlation with sleep quality and stress levels. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2016 and January 2017 in 195 medical students. Their smartphone use, level of smartphone addiction, sleep quality, and perceived stress levels were measured using the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), respectively. Results: Of the 195 students, 90 (46.15%) had smartphone addiction as per the scale. A self-reported feeling of having smartphone addiction, use of the smartphone right before sleeping, PSS scores, and PSQI scores were found to be significantly associated with the SAS-SV scores. Significant positive correlations were observed between the SAS-SV and PSS-10 scores, and the SAS-SV and PSQI scores. Conclusions: There is a high magnitude of smartphone addiction in medical students of a college in Western Maharashtra. The significant association of this addiction with poorer sleep quality and higher perceived stress is a cause for concern. The high self-awareness among students about having smartphone addiction is promising. However, further studies are required to determine whether this self-awareness leads to treatment seeking. Further studies are required to explore our finding of the association of smartphone addiction with using the smartphone before sleeping.

Background:Suicide is a grave mental health problem in India, and suicide rates in India have risen over the past decades. Suicide reporting by the media is a common cause for spurts of suicides that may occur from time to time. The aim of the present study was to assess the change in trends in media reporting of suicide after a celebrity suicide.Methodology:Suicide by the renowned actor Robin Williams was selected as the reference case. The top three Indian daily newspapers published in English having the highest circulation as per the Registrar of Newspapers, Government of India report were selected to be scanned in the study. These were the Times of India – Mumbai edition, Mumbai Mirror, and the Daily News Analysis – Mumbai edition. The authors screened all news stories in the three newspapers within a 6-month period (3 months prior and 3 months post the date of the reference suicide case), and these news reports were evaluated as per the suicide reporting guidelines for media laid down by the Indian Psychiatric Society. The data were analyzed using Chi-square test and descriptive statistics where appropriate.Results:A total of 708 newspaper articles were identified on the basis of the guidelines mentioned above. Nearly 88% (n = 623) of the articles directly covered suicide while 4.09% (n = 29) focused on suicidal threats and 7.91% (n = 56) focused on parasuicide behavior. There was a significantly greater increase in the total number of articles printed after the celebrity suicide (n = 409) for all article types except teasers as compared to that before the celebrity suicide (n = 299). There was a significantly greater increase in front page news on suicide after the celebrity suicide (P = 0.0016), description of the method of suicide (P = 0.0221), and the mention of the suicide notes (P = 0.0002). Most articles after the celebrity suicide placed the blame on someone or the environment for the act (P = 0.0001).Conclusions:A change in media trend toward reporting suicide was noted post a celebrity suicide, and it is important that media follow guidelines stringently when reporting a serious problem like suicide.

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