The impacts of adult separation anxiety disorder on nomophobia

Objective: Based on the idea that there may be a link between smartphone addiction and adult separation anxiety disorder (ASAD), our aim was to examine the impacts of ASAD symptoms on nomophobia and whether they predict nomophobia among ASAD patients. Method: We randomly recruited 50 patients diagnosed with ASAD and 50 control subjects satisfying the inclusion criteria. We collected the data using a sociodemographic information form, the Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire (ASA-27), the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: Fifty-four percent of the patients had moderate, and 46% showed mild nomophobia symptoms. The results revealed that, compared to healthy controls, the patients had significantly higher scores on the ASA-27, the BDI, the BAI, the NMP-Q (total), the NMP-Q not being able to access information, the NMP-Q giving up convenience, the NMPQ not being able to communicate, and the NMP-Q losing connectedness (p=0.006 for the NMP-Q giving up convenience; p<0.001 for others). Moreover, the results yielded significant positive relationships between ASAD and the participants' nomophobia total and subscale scores (except for losing connectedness) (p<0.05). Finally, ASAD scores significantly predicted nomophobia, not being able to access information, giving up convenience, and not being able to communicate. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to report nomophobia levels among patients diagnosed with ASAD. The increased severity of separation anxiety symptoms contributed to the severity of nomophobia in the patients, which, in turn, significantly boosted the severity of their depression and anxiety.