ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1691748
A longitudinal study on the relationships between impulsivity and excessive smartphone use among patients with acquired brain injury and control participants
Provisionally accepted
- Behavioral Science, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
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Introduction - Previous studies have demonstrated that impulsivity is positively correlated with excessive smartphone use, indicating the involvement of frontal lobe circuits. This study examined excessive smartphone use, impulsivity, and mental well-being in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) before and after occupational rehabilitation treatment, and control participants. Procedure-Participants- 44 patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) [10 patients with Orbitofrontal Syndrome (OFS) and 34 without Orbitofrontal Syndrome], and 69 control participants with no history of brain injury. The procedure included a smartphone application that tracked daily smartphone use and frequency of device unlocks, computerized tasks that evaluated impulsive choice (Delay Discounting Task), impulsive action or response inhibition (the ability to stop an already-initiated action-the Go/No-Go task), and questionnaires measuring excessive smartphone use, Obsessive Compulsive symptoms (YBOCS), impulsivity (BIS-11) that measures non-planning, motor and attention impulsivity) and mental well-being (DASS-21, which measures depression, anxiety, and stress). Data was collected at two time points: baseline (T1) and five months later (T2). Results-At baseline (T1), patients with ABI and OFS exhibited higher impulsive action, indicated by more commission errors on the Go/No-Go task, excessive smartphone use, and higher ratings of depression compared with control participants. Secondly, patients with ABI without OFS showed higher trait attention-impulsivity ratings compared with control participants. After treatment (T2), patients with ABI showed improved impulsive choice, indicated by improved delay discounting, but no improvement in smartphone use. Discussion - Brain injury, particularly in frontal regions, is associated with impulsiveness, and excessive smartphone use. The ABI patients showed an improvement in delay discounting after treatment, which is likely due to occupational therapy and training in control of impulsivity. It is recommended that specific treatment program for excessive smartphone use will be developed for patients with ABI.
Keywords: excessive smartphone use, impulsivity, Acquired brain injury (ABI), OFC syndrome, Treatment
Received: 24 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wacks, Koslowsky, Bloch and Weinstein. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Aviv M Weinstein, avivwe@ariel.ac.il
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