Keynote Speakers

Professor Naomi A Fineberg MBBS MA MRCPsych

Highly Specialized Service for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, University of Hertfordshire, Rosanne House 2nd Floor, Parkway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. AL8 6HG.

Naomi Anne Fineberg is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Hertfordshire, and a Consultant Psychiatrist at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, where she leads the NHS England Highly Specialised Service for Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders.  She is President Elect of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, co-chairs the World Psychiatric Association Anxiety & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Scientific Section and coordinates the Horizon Europe Bootstrap consortium investigating problematic usage of the Internet.

Professor Fineberg has a substantial track record in the investigation of the neurobiology and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders and behavioural addiction including problematic usage of the Internet. She is Editor in Chief of Comprehensive Psychiatry.
 

Problematic Use of the Internet (PUI) as a Global Health Challenge – New Approaches to Diagnosis, Treatment and Networked Research.

In response to growing global concern about problematic usage of the internet (PUI) and its public mental health and societal costs, including harmful effects on young people, this lecture provides an update on advances made in the field of PUI, in terms of nosology, biopsychosocial mechanisms, interventions, services and policy initiatives. A key advance has been achieving consensus on the clinical definition of various forms of PUI, providing a platform for networked research at global scale. The preliminary results of Bootstrap - a multinational longitudinal cohort study of >1,800 12-16y schoolchildren, co-designed with public stakeholders, whose online activity and developmental, health and wellbeing indices are continually monitored via their smartphones, suggests around 40% (majority female) show evidence of risk for PUI, with associated negative impact on mental health and wellbeing. Social media use difficulties are prevalent. Mechanistic modelling suggests PUI derives from an interaction between the person, their cognitive and affective status and the environment. Longitudinal data suggest PUI and mental  il-health interact over time, following  a ‘cascade’ model. This explains in part why young people, whose cognitive-affective functioning is still maturing, are so susceptible to the negative effects of PUI and provides a rational basis for the development of tailored interventions.