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Abstract Introduction Addiction is a chronic, recurrent, relapsing disorder characterized by the compulsive pursuit of certain substances or certain behaviors, and the continuation of them despite the harmful consequences resulting from them and the long-term changes that occur in the brain. Excessive computer use meets the criteria for addiction. There are two types of addiction, physical addiction and non-physical addiction, such as Internet addiction. Methods and Materials A pivotal cross-sectional study, in which data were collected on a simple, random basis through an electronic questionnaire with three sections that was distributed to medical students at the Syrian Private University. 219 students were accepted into the sample (n = 219). Results The results presented that there is a significant correlation between Internet addiction and the percentile in the last academic year (P = .015), and there is a significant correlation between Internet addiction and the presence of previous traumas (P = .016) and the presence of severe family problems (P = .000). Discussion The results of our study were consistent with most of the results of previous studies, except that our study did not present any association of Internet addiction with gender, which has been proven to exist in other studies. Conclusion As evidenced by this brief study, the field of Internet addiction is advancing rapidly even without formal recognition of it as a separate and distinct behavioral addiction and with continuing disagreement over diagnostic criteria. The debate over whether IAD should be classified as a (behavioral) addiction, an impulse control disorder, or even obsessive-compulsive disorder cannot be satisfactorily resolved. But the symptoms we have observed in clinical practice present a great deal of overlap with symptoms typically associated with (behavioral) addiction.
Al-Nahar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.