Internet addiction and relationships with depression, anxiety, stress and academic performance among Egypt pharmacy students: a cross-sectional designed study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pharmacy students represent the future of healthcare professionals and with daily use of the internet for different activities has made internet addiction (IA) of a growing concern. The main objectives of this study were to 1) assess internet addiction among pharmacy undergraduate students as well as factors associated with it; 2) assess the relationships between internet addiction and common mental disorders (depression, anxiety, and stress), in addition to academic performance and body mass index factors. METHODS: We utilized a cross-sectional questionnaire that was conducted among 808 students of Egypt university pharmacy students across the country. The surveys used included: Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS 21). RESULTS: YIAT average score was 44.75 (19.72%); prevalence rate of potential IA was 311 (38.5%) with no gender significant difference. We couldn't detect any type of correlation between potential IA and GPA. However, a robust correlation was found between internet addiction vs depression, anxiety and stress collectively. CONCLUSIONS: Internet addiction is usually associated with mental related disorders thus it is of paramount important to identify it among students. Different therapeutic interventions could include management to IA and common psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Extended infusion of piperacillin-tazobactam versus intermittent infusion in critically ill egyptian patients: a cost-effectiveness study.

Extended infusion of piperacillin/tazobactam over 4 h has been proposed as an alternate mode of administration to the 30-min intermittent infusion to optimize treatment effects in patients with gram-negative bacterial infections. The study aimed to evaluate the extended infusion regimen of piperacillin/tazobactam in standings of efficacy, safety, and cost to the intermittent one in the treatment of gram-negative bacterial infections. A prospective randomized comparative study was performed on 53 patients, 27 in the intermittent infusion group and 26 in the extended infusion group. The primary outcome was the mean number of days to clinical success and the percentage of patients who were clinically cured after treatment. The secondary outcomes included mortality, readmission within 30-days, and cost-effectiveness analysis based on the mean number of days to clinical success. The clinical success rate was comparable in the two groups. Days on extended infusion were significantly lower than intermittent infusion (5.7 vs 8.9 days, respectively, p = 0.0001) as well as days to clinical success (4.6 vs 8.5 days, respectively, p = 0.026). The extended infusion was superior to the intermittent infusion regarding cost-effectiveness ratio ($1835.41 and $1914.09/expected success, respectively). The more cost-effective regimen was the extended infusion. Both regimens had comparable clinical and microbiological outcomes.